There is a discussion thread on how to customize the dock for the Guest account in Leopard <https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1377093> but I do not think it will work in Lion.
I would like to customize the desktop and dock for the Guest account. I want a true Guest Account that will erase files when they log out.
Richard Tripp wrote:
I want a true Guest Account that will erase files when they log out.
I thought the default nature of Guest account was to erase all files and folders? Maybe I am missing something.
By that, I meant that I did not want to create a real user account for guests. Such are easily customized and would be an easy solution except files and folders would not be erased automatically when the user logged out.
Enable Guest Account
>Users&groups>
unlock your padlock>login Options>Enable Guest Account.
No! That creates a Guest Account but it has a standard desktop image and Apple's standard set of applications in the dock. If I customize that as a Guest, when I log out and come back as Guest, the changes are gone and it is back to the standard set.
Ok create a new user account. Hit the plus sign.
I need to know how to delete the guest account .... Thanks
Marden Braga
Marden,
Not sure what you are trying to do. You can delete it. Go to Preferences:Users and Groups and disable the Guest account and it will remain inaccessible until you enable it again. After doing that, I proceeded to delete the Guest folder. I have multiple drives and rebooted into another drive, selected the User:Guest folder on my Lion Startu drive; Got info, added myself as a User with Read Write priviledges and proceeded to delete the User folder. When I rebooted into Lion, the Users and Groups showed the Guest Account as there but disabled but within Users, the Guest folder was gone.
I'd like to go back to the original question. I don't see an answer here yet.
We just set up a new iMac in the front office and need the "Guest" account for those who float through the office. Unfortunately, the way it currently works, each time they open Microsoft Word they are asked to register since the user files are deleted.
I would also like to update the dock removing things they won't use like "Mail" and adding Pages and other applications they will use.
Other constant customizations would be great (setting system preferences like printer, custom desktop, Safari Home Page, etc.) but at least not having them asked to register applications each time would be good.
The original poster, Richard, added a link to how to do it in Snow Leopard, but it doesn't work in Lion.
Anyone figure out how to do this in LION yet?
Thanks.
Found the check box allowing customization of the dock. Don't know how I missed it before.
I still would love to have some custom System preferences.
Any ideas from the Terminal masters out there?
What checkbox allowing customizing of the dock?
Customization of the Guest User account is still an unresolved issue as far as I am concerned.
Early optimism shot down Richard.
If you select "Parental Controls" for the Guest user, you can then check the box "Allow User to Modify the Dock".
It does allow you to change the Dock, but resets when you log out so no permanent change.
Back to square one.
I haven't tried it in Lion, but this is possible to do with Workgroup Manager in OS X 10.6 and earlier. I have done it myself in Leopard and Snow Leopard.
Try downloading the Lion Server Admin Tools and see if Workgroup Manager will allow it. You might need to check "Show all records" under the menus (can't remember which one) to make the Guest account visible in the list.
I have Workgroup Manager running on the machine and see where to make the changes but can't authenticate to unlock the padlock. How do I log in? I've tried my Administrative Username and Password as well as the Master Password for the machine. No luck. Any ideas?
Enter localhost in the Domain field, in addition to the admin username/password.
Note that when Authenticating in the Workground Manager, for the admin username, you have to use the admin's shortname (the name of the admin's home folder), not the Full Name.
How do I customize the Guest Account in Lion
