loginwindow
Latest
Little-known options for the OS X login window
If you have your login window set to show the Name and Password fields (as opposed to the "List of users" or auto-login), you will see a window like the one shown above when your Mac first boots, when you logout, or when you change to the login window if you have Fast User Switching enabled. OS X has supported several "special" login names for a long time. Each is entered into the "Name" field with no password. They are: >restart >shutdown >sleep >console You can probably guess what the first three do. The fourth one ">console" will drop you to a shell login prompt, where you can login with your username and password if you want quick access to a shell instead of the full user interface. The restart/shutdown/sleep buttons will only work if you have not turned off to option to show them, but ">console" works regardless of that setting. The upshot of these settings: if you somehow found yourself using a version of OS X which lacked a "Restart" button on the login window, you could login as ">restart" in order to reboot your Mac. You can also easily add your contact information to the login screen (as shown above).
Mac 101: Disabling automatic login
If you use your Mac as a public computer (or family computer), then you might not always want it to load your user account when the computer starts up. By changing one option in the Accounts System Preference pane, you can have your Mac display a list of user accounts upon startup. Just open System Preferences and go to Accounts > Login Options. Click the "Automatic Login:" drop-down box and select "Disabled." Please note that you will need to authenticate as an administrator to change any of these settings. You can further customize the "login window" by choosing either "List of users" or "Name and password." If "list of users" is selected, you will be prompted to click your user account name and give your password in order to login. If name and password is selected, you will need to type in both your username and password to login.
