Hidden User

Basically, you cannot. However, there is a way to change the login screen so that no names are displayed (for all users). In Logion Options in the Accounts preference panel, choose Name and Password instead of List of Users.

Assign the user a UID below 500 and the user will be hidden from the login window.

Mark, I would be interested in knowing how to do that, thanks.

The best solution may depend on what you mean by "hidden", although in "TIger", the best may still not be what you are looking for.

Up to "Panther", any user with a uid less than 500 would be hidden from the "login window", "Accounts" pref pane, and the "Fast user switching" menu (if they weren't already logged in). This apparently no longer has the same effect in "Tiger".

In "Tiger", to prevent a user from appearing in the "Accounts" pref pane, set their uid to an available value less than 500. Because file ownership is based on uid, it will be necessary to adjust the ownership of all of their files as well.

To prevent the user from appearing in the "login window", their shortname must be added to the ' HiddenUsersList' array in the "com.apple.loginwindow.plist" file in the user's "/Library/Preferences" folder, as described by Guillaume O. at the macosxhints.com forum. For example, while logged in to an "admin" account, enter this command using "/Applications" > "Utilities" > "Terminal.app":<pre>defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array user1 user2</pre>However, this may cause the "Other…" user to appear in the "login window", and I'm not sure if it is possible to get rid of that...

biovizier,

You are always an interesting read. Thumbs up!

Mark

Thanks. As the other poster said, an interesting read indeed (but not for the faint-hearted). I am going to save this information as a "just in case". Thanks for the response.