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Fast User Switching with out the User Switching part?

Hello,

I manage a lot of Macs for a school district and the teachers and I really love the feature of Fast User Switching that displays the logged in user in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

However, the problem we're running into is that students have figured out that they can "switch" out of their user by clicking on their name and choosing "login window". They think that this is the equivalent of logging out when it is not. I think they do it for the cool "cube" effect.

Anywho, is it possible to disable their ability to open the Fast User Switching menu? Or, maybe better yet, is it possible to have the user logged in displayed in the upper right corner but NOT have Fast User Switching capabilities?

I hope I make sense!

Thanks in advance.

~ Anthony

Bunch o' Macs, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on May 14, 2008 10:06 AM

Reply
3 replies

May 14, 2008 10:26 AM in response to Anthony J

Welcome to the Forums!

...is it possible to disable their ability to open the Fast User Switching menu?


Yes, Fast User Switching can be disabled (as long as you are logged in as an Admin) in System Preferences > Accounts > (unlock the pane) > Login Options, uncheck the box for it.

Or, maybe better yet, is it possible to have the user logged in displayed in the upper right corner but NOT have Fast User Switching capabilities?


Not with the Apple version of Fast User Switching, no. There might be a 3rd party app that can show the user name in the menu bar, although a quick google search didn't turn up anything obvious. I did find something called WinSwitch, which seems to have the ability to run a "switch-out item" when you leave an account, and perhaps that, in combination with an AppleScript to log out, may accomplish what you want to do. Not sure, though.

Hope this helps...

Fast User Switching with out the User Switching part?

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