Q: Permanently Modify Mac OS X Guest Account (Mac) Mountain Lion

The Guest account is designed to be temporary - the setup is easy enough to modify by using the server tools, or if you want a new account that stays, just create a new account.

Michael

The guest account is designed for sharing on your Mac to either share files your network or on your Mac. You can use the Guest Account to log into the Mac itself but it will delete the Home Folder when you log out. It is not designed for permanent access. Guest Account does not have a password and needs enabling/disabling in System Preferences.

Why not just create another account on your machine which is a non admin account with a simple generic password or no password at all. Would achieve the same thing as using Guest account but keeping settings of the last user etc. Looks like you are possibly trying to over complicate things.

You can use OS X Server's Workgroup Manager to set up preferences for the Guest account.

The HOW would appear to be more getting the applications registered and serialised so that they can be used rather than keeping the Guest user folder etc. Office should be fine if it is activated and serialised under the admin account of the machine and not the guest account.

As red_menace has mentioned you can manage preferences in Workgroup Manager. This would set a standard look and feel as a starting point to every user that logs in. You can also create more custom management from plists if required or needed.

I tried running the terminal command on Mavericks but it did not work.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

I'm also looking for a way to do this in 10.9

Thanks!

Hello everyone

I would like to achieve the same here but it hasn't worked out so far. I need to permamently modify the guest user for our school laptops running OSX 10.9:

- register programmes

- modify dock

- do all the first runs

- edit default printer settings

- set custom wallpaper

Unfortunately, only part of this can be done with the workgroup manager.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Morgy

Paul Airs wrote:

 

...

 

Why not just create another account on your machine which is a non admin account with a simple generic password or no password at all. Would achieve the same thing as using Guest account but keeping settings of the last user etc. Looks like you are possibly trying to over complicate things.

In a public environment like a school or library, the Guest User account is essential because OS X resets the account to its "vanilla" state on Log Out.  Each new guest gets a fresh OS X with no debris from previous guests.

Customizing the Guest User account is also essential:

• Configure the Dock for the typical guest, removing some OS X apps and adding Office and other 3rd party apps.
• Set the Safari default page to the school or library website.
• Set the default desktop picture.
• Set Finder defaults, e.g., icon size & spacing, display drives.

-- Ward

Has anyone made it any further with this?

The ability to edit this account from 10.5 - 10.8 has been wonderful for our environment.

As Ward said for Schools and Libraries it's an amazing feature without having to buy something like Deepfreeze and it actually works better since it does the delete action on logoff instead of reboot.

Hi Michael.Cologne,

You are really confusing this here:

The idea of the Apple Standard Guest access is to let a person use your computer just now for an hour or two without being able to make any lasting changes to your Mac.

He can use your applications, he can save his documents, access webmail etc. etc. And he can then connect to remote servers and store his work there or he can use his email to send his new documents via email.

When he log out again the guest user will be empty, set back to standard and that ready to be lent out to the next user.

IF YOU WANT A PERMANENT ACCOUNT FOR SOMEBODY ELSE - ONE OR MORE PEOPLE SHARING

Create a new account, call it something understandable, like Michaels guests and give the rights to those users you would like to give them. You could even give them access without a password, like with the guest account, although this is definitely not a good advice.

This should, I hope, help.

And you should not have to go to the terminal or use other strange and radical methods to accomplish your goals

Best regards

Carsten

Hello everyone, I'm trying to do the same as Michael.

We want to configure 30 Macbooks running Avid Sibelius 7 for use by university students.

We want to use a restricted account that leaves no user data once they've finished - the Guest User account would be ideal for this.

However, Sibelius by default asks if you want to go online and check for updates (which can be suppressed in its settings).

We also want to set a customised wallpaper and Dock.

My understanding is that these settings would be wiped for the Guest User account. So, perhaps I can ask the reverse question:

Can I set up another standard user account (like a Guest account) but run some kind of command that wipes their data on log off?

Thanks

Andrew

mamvcivm wrote:

 

... 

We want to configure 30 Macbooks running Avid Sibelius 7 for use by university students.

We want to use a restricted account that leaves no user data once they've finished - the Guest User account would be ideal for this.

However, Sibelius by default asks if you want to go online and check for updates (which can be suppressed in its settings).

We also want to set a customised wallpaper and Dock.

 

My understanding is that these settings would be wiped for the Guest User account. So, perhaps I can ask the reverse question:

 

Can I set up another standard user account (like a Guest account) but run some kind of command that wipes their data on log off?

Andrew, it seems that a customized Guest account is just what you need (in addition to an Administrator account with full privileges).

The setup of the Guest account can include setting Sibelius preferences to not check for updates.

-- Ward