Get rid of ALL user accounts?

[aaquib]

I'm the only person who uses my Mac, and wanted to know if I could completely get rid of user accounts. I have no password set, so it's really just a waste of time to have to press "OK" everytime I need to authorize anything.

Is there anyway I could eliminate ever having to authorize anything on Leopard or remove the need for a user account?

 

[Tallest Skil]

No. Part of why OS X is secure as an OS is the authentication.

 

[stukdog]

You'll have to keep a user account for yourself in order to even log in. But, you could safely delete all the rest of the user accounts.

 

[applefan69]

never havin to authorize anythin is a pretty big security risk. I knwo you might sound silly, but think about it.

ANY SOFTWARE, could do whatever it wants whenever it wants. Now sure software wont just randomly destroy your system. But the fact the system demands authorization before anything can alter the system is kinda why viruses arent a big problem on OS X.

 

[the vj]

I have all my 5 Macs without password and never had a problem even when sometimes it ask me for my password to install something wich is ok.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

^ yup yup. I remember reading an article about a virus on OS X disguised as a ZIP archive of pre-released Leopard wallpapers. This happened a bit over a year ago here at MacRumors forums. However, the virus only would get out of the ZIP archive shell if you authenticate it. That is why OS X is secure. Anything that might change the OS's core will require authentication.

 

[Meromo]

Sounds like you've done just about as much as you can to get around the annoyance of user accounts and passwords: set automatic log in, and set your password to blank (beware if you're still using Tiger - if you change your password to actually contain something, then try to change it back, it won't let you.)

You could try setting permissions for various folders to allow you to read and write, including sub-folders. You could even do that for your whole hard drive - although that may well mess up things spectacularly...

However, the virus only would get out of the ZIP archive shell if you authenticate it.

Which is of course what 90% of users will do. People have already been conditioned to provide their password in whatever random situation OSX appears to require it.