Permanently Modify Mac OS X Guest Account (Mac) Mountain Lion

Michael.Cologne

Hey All,

i am shure, some of u might know the problem.

So, everytime u close a guest account, all data gets erased. And as well all settings get reset.

So, i searched around quite a bit, and what came out as helping the most is the following:

1. enable guest account

2. enable fast user swithing

3. switch to guest account

3. do ALL ure settings, run all apps and programs, that need registration, and so on. some more often for not asking u stuff again..

Modifiy the Dock, change Desktop, etc...

(dont forget to CLOSE/END all Programs, otherwise they will be started everytime user logs in.)

4. simply fast-change to main account without closing the guest account.

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and then the trouble started... coping, giving yourself rights, etc... videos online about it, etc...

easiest thing to to is the following:

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5. execute the following command in a terminal window:

sudo cp -r /Users/Guest/ /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/

!!! Importent for other language users then english !!!

when u run ure systems mainly in another language, u need to do it ALSO with that language. OS X seems to be mixing information. so simply past line

AGAIN, but change last language part.

sudo cp -r /Users/Guest/ /System/Library/User\ Template/German.lproj/

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some ppl said, it is also possible while logged into the guest account. Doesnt work for me, cause guest account want the

guest-account password. which i dont have, or is somewhere hidden in system files.

And for ppl that what to copie settings across systems, beware, there is a "Keychain"-Folder that messes up the accounts.

u cant copie that one around.

Hope it helps for who every gets the same problem.

And i hope Apples gonna make that a basic feature... kind of still ***** this way...

Cheers, Michael

What you need to do is this

sudo rm -r /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/Library/Keychains

or

sudo rm -r /System/Library/User\ Template/{English.lproj,YourLanguage.lproj}/Library/Keychains in case you are not an english language user.

As instructed by my Apple engineer for our school, I do make permanent changes to the guest account. We have about 400 students and two years ago at the new school Apple Professional services came to help me set up all the computers and servers. At that time I was told that Apple would no longer be supporting network accounts and I struggled to find an answer. I was told to use the guest account and google drive; I am and it works great. Through fast user switching the changes that need to be made in the guest account are completed. Microsoft Office is a good example; it will ask to sign-in each time if this is not taken care of. I realize the purpose of the guest account is to delete the data the user has created and for me this works great. The students now save their work to either a flash drive or Google drive. My "I can't login" rescues almost completely went away. Things that ask for a one time setup is saved to the library folder to the guest account that is then copied to the system/library/user template/english.lproj folder; replacing the library folder there. The problem in 10.10 is the keychain. Simply, while in the guest account through away what may be a keychain file then open up something like google chrome. It will tell you that there isn't a keychain and do you want to reset to defaults; yes you do. Then go back to your new library folder in the user template and replace the keychain with one from system/library. I set the desktop, screen saver, printers and the guest account works as designed. Before you make any changes in the user template duplicate the english.lproj folder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU-W2-_c5bA

There are good reasons for wanting to make permanent changes tot eh Guest account. For example, setting a desktop that says "This computer belongs to Acme Inc. If found, please call -1555-LOST-MAC" or customizing the Dock.

We used to use the Guest account for student logins, and had the apps they needed on the Dock.