Unable to modify Guest Account in Mavericks

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Level 1

3 points

Unable to modify Guest Account in Mavericks

I have been modifying the built-in Guest Accounts (Adding the company wallpaper, set all the browsers to our company site etc) in all other previous versions of OS X until I upgraded one of my machines to Mavericks. I do this because I want it to reset back to the my customised settings.

I used to copy all the files over into the User Template/English.lproj file.

BUT now, after upgrading to Mavericks, there is no Library Folder under Users/Guest so I am unable to save all my settings that I made e.g. Mouse Settings, Wallpapers, Dock Icons etc. I unhid all the folders by running the commands and also in the Finder Settings.

It was so simple in the previous versions of OS X, somehow in Mavericks they have removed this function?

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Jan 22, 2014 6:51 PM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,524 points

Jan 22, 2014 7:22 PM in response to Kenneth Khaw

My /Users/Guest folder disappears when the Guest logs out. So, if you have a Guest folder when nobody is logged in, something is wrong. Essentially, each time Guest logs out, the folder is recreated from the Template.

I would imagine it is just the /System/Library/User Template for the particular language.

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Answer 2

Kenneth Khaw Author

Level 1

3 points

Jan 22, 2014 9:26 PM in response to Barney-15E

Yes, I know that that folder dissapears once Guest account is logged off, but I switched user WHILE GUEST account is still logged on, in order to get "amended" folders so that I can copy it over to /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj folder

I login to Guest account and then make my changes, then switch user back to Administrator.

But the "temp" Guest folder in /Users/Guest folder does not have the "Library" folder where are all the settings are kept....that is what I am missing or has gone missing.

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Answer 3

Kenneth Khaw Author

Level 1

3 points

Jan 23, 2014 1:23 AM in response to Kenneth Khaw

Hello Everyone,

Ok I managed to figure it out. I didnt "Unhide" the Library folder for the Guest account properly. After running:

chflags nohidden /Users/Guest/Library

Now the Library folder appears under /Users/Guest.

This problem/noobness has been solved. Sorry again for being such a noob.

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Answer 4

Morgy

Level 1

34 points

Jan 30, 2014 2:34 AM in response to Kenneth Khaw

Hello Kenneth and community

I also need to permanently modify the guest account for our new school laptops (dock, registring programmes, printer setting, wallpaper) running OSX 10.9. Not being very familiar to the Terminal, this following step-by-step post helped me when I had to do the same thing on OSX 10.6:

http://www.michaelsmac.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=394

However, this doesn't work for 10.9 as folder structure seems to be different. I tried to combine information from this thread here and the linked one but it didn't work.

Kenneth or someone else,

could you please give a step-by-step instruction to modify the guest account for 10.9 for "Terminal dummies" like me? Thanks very much in advance!

Morgy

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