Do you guys have a seperate admin account?

[odinsride]

I was talking to a friend who works IT for a High School and he said it's a good idea to not give your main user account admin privileges - you should make a separate admin account from your main account, take away admin privs from your main account, and use the admin credentials when needed. Do you guys do this?

I'm no idiot with computers, I know not to delete crucial system files...so is it really necessary for me to have a separate admin account?

 

[soup4you2]

I feel this is important for windows systems, macs that would be best practice but in reality it's not fully needed since you need a password to be given administrative rights anyways.

 

[epochblue]

I don't do it. I should do it, though.
I tend to practice pretty safe computing habits, but no one is immune from their own stupidity....

 

[yagran]

I was talking to a friend who works IT for a High School and he said it's a good idea to not give your main user account admin privileges - you should make a separate admin account from your main account, take away admin privs from your main account, and use the admin credentials when needed. Do you guys do this?

I'm no idiot with computers, I know not to delete crucial system files...so is it really necessary for me to have a separate admin account?

IMO seperate accounts is a PINA lol

 

[xUKHCx]

I feel this is important for windows systems, macs that would be best practice but in reality it's not fully needed since you need a password to be given administrative rights anyways.

You can have an admin account without a password.

I just make sure I have a strong password and know what I am installing.

 

[Queso]

I have a separate admin account on both my Macs. It doesn't protect against everything, but I think it's good practice to adopt the standard UNIX least-privilege model, just in case.

 

[mkrishnan]

I do.

 

[NATO]

I have my normal OS X account as a 'Standard User', with an Admin account set up just for the purposes of authenticating anything OS X deems necessary. You definitely get asked for the Admin password more than if you're account was an Administrator account, so for security purposes, I highly recommend it, and its very very easy to set up.

 

[RollTide]

I do it, helps me sleep at night.

 

[Queso]

I have my normal OS X account as a 'Standard User', with an Admin account set up just for the purposes of authenticating anything OS X deems necessary. You definitely get asked for the Admin password more than if you're account was an Administrator account, so for security purposes, I highly recommend it, and its very very easy to set up.

I find it's really only two extra places where you have to authenticate. System Preferences and in the Terminal by using the login command. Otherwise it's just the same as if you had an "everyday" admin account.

 

[nplima]

it's always a good idea to keep accounts separate. I am probably one in 243 users in the whole world that does that even when using Windows

you just never know if one day after installing a cool screensaver your friends recommended you're looking at nice fireworks while the screensaver is deleting files at random in the background. With a normal user at least it's only /home that gets wasted.

 

[Queso]

it's always a good idea to keep accounts separate. I am probably one in 243 users in the whole world that does that even when using Windows

I do it on Windows too. XP makes it pretty easy by integrating the Runas... feature into the contextual menus. Web browsing, Outlook etc. always run under standard locked down user credentials. Admin tasks bypass the restrictions when needed.

 

[0007776]

I probably should, but I don't.

 

[Squonk]

Uh. What's an admin account?

Just kidding.

I know this is the right thing, but on my home machine I'm just kind of lazy about things.

 

[theBB]

Yes.

 

[yetanotherdave]

On windows yes, on OS X? Not really necessary in my opinion. I definitely don't run a root account, and the OS asks to me authenticate anything that needs admin privs anyway.