Lesson 7: Manage User Accounts

Question 1

What are the types of local user accounts in macOS Mojave?

How are they different?

Answer 1

The local users accounts in macOS include the following:

1. Administrator: Administrator user accounts are part of the admin group and are allowed full access to all apps, preferences, and shared resource locations.
2. Standard: Standard users are allowed to take advantage of nearly all the resources and features of a Mac, but they generally can’t change things that might affect other users.
3. Managed with Parental Controls: A managed account is a standard account with Parental Controls enabled.
4. Guest: The default guest account is similar to a standard user, but it doesn’t require a password. When a guest user logs out, the home folder is deleted, including any home folder items that would normally be saved, such as preference files or web browser history.
5. Sharing Only: Sharing Only accounts allow you to share files with someone on a different computer, but they can’t log in to your Mac.
6. System Administrator (Root User Account): The System Administrator account has unlimited access to almost everything on a Mac. It is turned off by default on macOS.
7. Group: A group account is a list of user accounts that gives you greater control over file and folder access.

Question 2

What other types of user accounts can macOS use in addition to local user accounts?

Answer 2

There are two other user accounts in addition to the local user accounts that macOS uses:

1. Network user accounts: Available to multiple Mac computers and is stored on a shared directory server such as Active Directory that centralizes identification, authentication and authorization information. The home folder for a Network user account is usually stored on a network file server.
2. Mobile user account: A network user account that has been synced with the local user database so that you can use a mobile user account even when your Mac can’t contact the shared directory server. The home folder for a mobile user account is usually stored on the startup disk.

Question 3

What are account attributes?

Answer 3

Account attributes are the individual pieces of information used to define a user account.

Examples include:

• User ID
• group
• account name
• full name
• login shell
• home directory
• universally unique ID (UUID)
• Apple ID
• aliases

Question 4

How can you limit a user account from having full access to all apps?

Answer 4

You can use Parental Controls to restrict what users can do.

Question 5

What does fast user switching allow you to do?

Answer 5

Fast user switching lets a Mac switch between user accounts without users having to log out or quit apps.