User/Admin account

[Rowf]

Is it better to setup a ordinary user account for daily use rather than use the administrator account for general daily use?
As the only user of my macbook would I be advised to do this from a security standpoint?

 

[angelwatt]

There have been some discussions on this before. Take a look at these found via MRoogle.

administrator vs standard account privileges?
Use an Administrator Standard account
Going from using admin account to standard user
One user, shall I use the admin account or just a standard account ...
Admin or standard user for daily use???? WHy???

 

[Rowf]

Thank you.

As a new macbook user I think I've just found a new best friend in MRoogle.
I didn't realise what it was until I clicked on the link, yaay for MRoogle

 

[Blaine]

So what's the general consensus on this now that macs are growing increasingly popular, and with the macdefender malware?

All the linked to threads are over a year old.

 

[Rowf]

I did run a standard user account for a short time and then went back to using an admin account.

The reason being that automatic software update will only run on an admin account, using a standard user account requires manual activation of software update.
From my point of view I regarded the possibility of my system being behind on security updates as a negation of the possible benefits of running as standard user.

A recent thread/discussion of this is here: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=12630455&#post12630455

 

[GGJstudios]

So what's the general consensus on this now that macs are growing increasingly popular, and with the macdefender malware?

All the linked to threads are over a year old.

Whether you run a standard or admin account makes no difference. No viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

The first section of that link deals specifically with the MacDefender/MacSecurity/MacProtector/MacGuard issue, which is not a virus. I encourage you to read it.