Posting in Catalina, but I have questions about general OS X Installation Issues.

Thank you John. You may be right on the confusion point.

You say "you can consider creating a Standard account for "normal" use. Are you saying that it would be OK for me, for example, to create a standard user account now post installation having the same name as the home folder created at installation (or is that folder somehow tied inextricably to the the Admin created at installation)?

Thank you again John. I apologize for being trying. And, perhaps I am being dense, but I don't want to make a mistake here. You say: "Your Home folder name (which is synonymous with your "short user name") has to be uniquely named. It's the only thing that matters to macOS."

In this context, let's say that my long name, my Administrator name, set up during installation is John Smith. And, let's say that the name on the home folder set up during installation is JSmi. Is JSmi the short name for Administrator John Smith. And, thus, are Administrator John Smith and home folder JSmi inextricable linked.

Thank you so much again John. And, I gave you for full credit for answering my question since you said I I'm not being dense. ;) ;) ;)

It's interesting that you mentioned "Change the name of ...." above. You linked it very recently. And, I was puzzled by it. But, that article is what got me stared on all these questions. My problem with it was that it starts by saying:

"You can rename your macOS user account and home folder, which were named when the account was created. The name of your macOS user account and the name of your home folder must both be the same. "

So, I looked in Users and Groups and saw what I already knew; they were not the same, e.g., John Smith not the same as JSmi. Ergo, my puzzlement. I thought, well, if they have to be the same, then why don't they have to start the same? I guess the answer is that they just don't.

Now assume that I don't want to make John Smith and JSmi the same on my machine. Then, if I want to set us a standard user account to test some things, I take it that the main thing I should do is not use, for example, John Smith or JSmi in doing so. Right?

I don't remember what I saw for the short user name. It just looked goofy to me. And, I wouldn't have wanted to see my full name in lower case on my home folder anyway. I didn't even use my full name for the Admin name, just used my first and last. In the future, maybe I'll just use what I want for my short name in both places. I guess Apple would allow that. But, who knows? Maybe only the Shadow.

Thank you again for all your time and effort.

Hi John: I am not sure how to contact you. Here is my best stab for dealing with an offshoot of standard use, etc., discussion we had. I am trying to figure out the safest way to experiment with iCloud. I am thinking of setting up a standard user to do so. My goal is to set up a standard user, say, Shadow, and allow him to thoroughly explore what goes on in iCloud without being able to do anything that would affect my Administrator account or his Apple ID. I know there are different restrictions that can be put on standard users. Do you have an opinion on what would be best in accomplishing my goal. As indicated, I also am concerned about my Apple ID of my Administrator. I don't want to do anything that might mess with it. So, to accomplish my goal, would I have to set up a separate Apple ID for Shadow? If I did, do you think it would be better to set it up using an email address not connected with my Apple email, say Ghost@yahoo.com. What trouble could I get into if I set up an Apple ID for Ghost?

I like that and the Gif, hahaha!. Well, you know, some rectangles could be rusty. And, you could use Me and Mini-Me. Uh-oh tho. That would make the short name longer than the long name.