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troy14

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2008
773
130
Las Vegas (Summerlin), NV
Hey guys, I have been a Macbook Pro user for a long time now, and it is wonderful. I want to get my parents into the Mac ecosystem - they have a crappy Dell laptop and they are not great with technology - windows makes it just that much more difficult to use everything.

I am looking on craigslist to get a cheaper iMac for them. I want my Mother to be able to have her own iPhoto collection so she can transfer / print photos, etc, separate from my fathers. She has a digital camera but is frustrated by it because she can never get pictures off of it (especailly trying to do it on windows! iPhoto is so simple!)

That being said, my question is - is it possible to have a login screen like on Windows? I mean I kind of have it figured out on my laptop but I can't figure out how to make it go back to the login screen to give them a choice of user after a set amount of time (kind of like windows).
 

forty2j

macrumors 68030
Jul 11, 2008
2,585
2
NJ
Yes; there's even fast user switching in the top right of the task bar. You need to enable "require password" in order to get a login screen at boot.

There is something about locking the computer in the screen saver settings.
 

troy14

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2008
773
130
Las Vegas (Summerlin), NV
Yes; there's even fast user switching in the top right of the task bar. You need to enable "require password" in order to get a login screen at boot.

There is something about locking the computer in the screen saver settings.

Thanks. I'll look in the screen saver settings - I know about the user switching in the top right bar, but I want it to say after 5 minutes of no activity (when they get up / leave / are done) to have a login window EVERY time so they know exactly what user they are on, and minimal effort. It sounds trivial but my parents are sort of anti-technology and it frustrates them very easily. If they always had the same window with their names on it and all they had to do was click their name - that would be the best, especially with no password.
 

AppleNewton

macrumors 68000
Apr 3, 2007
1,697
84
1 Finite Place
By default on 10.8 Systems it is required for a password to use to log in to the OS.
So if you have a Mac with 10.8 it will be the default set-up.

However you can create additional users in System Preferences > USers & Groups and enable require password at log-in.

In System Preferences > Security & Privacy you can select Require a Password Immediately after screen saver begins and that log-in account would be require for to use their password.

you can have fast user switching, you can have the log-in window display all users or a username & password field so only those who know their username & password can access the system
 
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