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General discussion

admin vs user

by russ666 May 12, 2006 2:49AM PDT

i can't find it although i HAVE looked a bit. Being logged out as ''admin''. and logged in as ''user'' protects from some things, i remember someone posting (maybe you). If i were to DO that i could still use many things but not use others without switching back and forth and the requisite time wasted waiting for it to all happen. There MUST be a faster way to achieve the ends. i know i am missing something, but what might that be? And also what dangers (in a general way) does it protect me FROM? i do always have the macfirewall going (except for an msn chat portal and an aol/aim chat portal) and when i leave the area (as admin) i shut down all clients and engage screensaver which then requires admin password to turn back off and display the finder screen. Am i wasting my time again pickin nits? Please advise (when you are not too busy and it is a convenient time for you, no ongoing panic)
russ

Discussion is locked

10 Posts
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next to no interest
by russ666 May 15, 2006 8:47AM PDT

Next to no interest on this one, i see. Maybe i needed a better subject/title with a real good hook. iMac PPC g3 memory = 768MB 700HZ graphite slot loading. OS X 10.2.8

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Run as an Administrator
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 15, 2006 11:18AM PDT

you will still be asked to authenticate any changes that require that any system files get changed.

Keep the firewall on, do not open any attachments from people you do not know and watch where you go.

Logged on as a user offers slightly more protection but it will still ask for permission to install anything. you should not have to swap back and forth between users. Just put your Admin username and password in and it should accept it

P

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as admin.
by russ666 May 15, 2006 12:49PM PDT

Thank you
Can you explain in any specific detail what additional protection running as a user might actually provide?
glass hoppah

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It will protect you from
by Gakada May 16, 2006 3:16AM PDT

formating/reinstalling your pc, from installing something, and mostly for Privacy .. each user have their own folder in which other user wont be able to get in ...

and also hopefully, if anything go wrong (software/application wise), it only affecting that user account only..

So you can back-up and repair/delete that user account .. using Admin account.

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Not exactly
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 16, 2006 4:30AM PDT

Running with an Admin account does NOT give you access to anyone elses account on the Mac.
Unlike Windows where, as an administrator, you can go to the Documents and Settings folder and look at everyone's stuff, OS X will not let you do this.
Each user on OS X has there own account anyway which is not accessible by the other users.

More info to follow


P

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the hard part
by russ666 May 16, 2006 5:17AM PDT

The hard part when setting up my great grandson's user account (from my perspective) was how to keep him from even seeing the hard drive icon/avatar. Eventually i discovered the secret using my mystical muddle-through technique using a bludgeon where a scalpel was more called for.
glass hoppah

''It was generally unremarked among the other scorcerers that the scorcerer's neophyte apprentice had once obtained a gold and jewel encrusted belt of the 9th level in another discipline, if only because he was so obiously unworthy in this, his newest endeavor. Surely the ''other discipline'' had less meticulous standards.''

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Thank you G
by russ666 May 16, 2006 4:56AM PDT

Thank you. So from your own perspective, only other in-house users can be a mac threat in-so-long as macfirewall is in place and turned on, true? And the out of town hacker is only just another micro$oft problem and a boogeyman to scare children and sell anti malware with?
Thank you this info. helps to ease my concerns.
russ

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Admin V User
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 16, 2006 5:40AM PDT

When you first fired up OS X, an account was automatically created for you. This was an administrative account and is necessary for performing changes to the system, like installing stuff. Some schools of thought indicate that, if possible, this account should not be the account you commonly use; it should be reserved for making changes to the system and installing system-wide applications. After installing Mac OS X, go into the Users item in System Preferences create a new account without administrative access. For your common tasks, log in as that user.

This move disables the root, although it can be re-enabled if need be. It also means that all administrative tasks, turning on and off various types of sharing and adding or deleting users for example, must be done by one of the administrator accounts. (the one you first created)

Apple has written the user interface to provide further safeguards to prevent software installs and changes to the Central Core. These safeguards prevent users from accidentally breaking their systems. Any time you launch an administrative tool, you will have to authenticate yourself by entering the username and password of an administrative account to make changes. There should be NO need to log out as a user and back in as the Administrator.

For the rug rat in your life, there is no need to hide any icons, just create a restricted account for them and decide exactly what it is that they can touch. Try creating a restricted account and see what you can do with it. You can always delete them afterwards


Does this make things clearer?

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memory hog
by russ666 Jun 14, 2006 10:04AM PDT

i know you are going to deride and pooh pooh me over this, master, but i have to risk it. i followed your most excellent advice.

This new user (me) had to have all the cool things i had created for myself when i was administrator (also me) So i spent a VERY long time putting all the iTunes files (about 10 gigs worth) into this new user's (me) account. i did this also with my pictures by placing them into the ''shared'' folder. Then, when i decided it was safe to do & all working fine, went over to my administrator's (me) account side again and deleted all the iTunes files that were there, thinking that NOW i would regain all those gigs of memory storage that 20 gigs (2 X 10) was taking up.

Silly me.

They dissappeared so fast i began to smell a problem. And sure enough, even though iTunes at the admin site is blank and empty as a deflated balloon, i have even less gigs of memory according to my hard drive>file>get info>than ever. i can see that all i had really done was to change the route. What i CAN't see is why it took so much memory with it. Hard drive memory is listed in file> get info as 55.89GB used and 13.23GB available. Master, is this a sign from the Dragon that i have been too impetuous ?
Glass Hoppah

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Questin
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Jun 14, 2006 11:30AM PDT

Do you have all your iTunes tracks under your "user" account?
What was the amount of STORAGE space you had before the iTunes move?

You would not have gained any storage space it you moved your tracks from one place to another and then deleted the original.

Memory is RAM and has nothing to do with Hard Drive Space. Storage.


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