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Why Mac OS X terminates applications when switching users

H

hajime

macrumors G3
Original poster
Under Windows XP, we can switch users without terminating the applications from the current user. How come Mac OS X cannot do the same thing?
 
hajime said:
Under Windows XP, we can switch users without terminating the applications from the current user. How come Mac OS X cannot do the same thing?
Click to expand...

It can if you enable fast user switching

System Preferences - Accounts - Login Options - Enable fast user switching

Then up in the top right you should see a little icon of a person or your username depending on the options, click that and you will be able to log into the other account while the apps stay open in your original account.
 
It can and does when using "Fast User Switching". However, if you log out, it quits all open apps.

TEG
 
I think you are logging out rather than switching users. You need to enable Fast User Switching.

Found under Accounts in the System Preferences panel.

fast_user.png
 
Since the applications of other users might be running in the background, does fast-switching slow down the computer? How about its effect on memory usage?
 
not really. depends if your using memory & CPU intensive apps in the other account. you can view the activity for each user by opening Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder.
 
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