Is there a way to keep users logged in?

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Since 1986 Author

Level 1

17 points

Is there a way to keep users logged in?

I have a situation where I have two users on one MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard and would like the computer to switch to the login screen, but not log the users out. One user is an administrator and requires a password to sign in, the other is a public user and does not require a password to sign in.

I have the System Preferences set to "Log out after 30 minutes of inactivity" because I want the system to remain "secure" should the system get stolen. A would be thief would have access to the public user, which has parental limitations and Simple Finder active, but wouldn't be able to access the administration functions. However, both users are left active from time to time. Occassionally, I'll go into the admin user and forget to log out. The computer switches to the login screen and then a public user (family members in this case) can simple log into the public user account.

The problem with this scenario is that the public user gets logged out every time they're idle for 30 minutes (of course, that's what's supposed to happen). What I want to happen is that the user stayed logged in, but the computer still returned to the login screen after 30 minutes of inactivity, simply showing the "user is logged in" message.

Is this possible?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Posted on Jan 4, 2012 7:06 AM

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Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Jan 4, 2012 8:18 AM in response to Since 1986

You have a few options. One, you could turn on fast user switching, in System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Options. Then, you just choose the Login Window option from the FUS menu (which will be next to the Spotlight icon) whenever you leave the computer unattended. When you log back in to your account, it's fast and all your apps are still open.

Alternately, you could go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy (or whatever it was called in Snow Leopard, maybe just Security) and check the box to require a password for waking from sleep or dismissing the screen saver. Then, if the computer gets stolen, the thief will not be able to use it, but would be able to force shut down and restart, and then can log in to the guest account... if the thief knows how to do that, of course.

Also, note that any security you believe the account password implies is false. That password is easy to reset, which would give the thief access to all the data on your account. You can solve that by encrypting anything you don't want the thief to get access to. You can encrypt the entire disk, but still leave a guest account for a thief to use so you can potentially locate the computer later, using File Vault in Lion. File Vault in Snow Leopard has some fairly significant disadvantages, so I don't know that I'd recommend that, but if you upgrade to Lion, File Vault has more features and is a bit more mature. This isn't necessary, though, you could always put sensitive data in an encrypted disk image created with Disk Utility or in your keychain (which stays locked even if you reset the account password).

Hope this helps!

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