Comments on: Mac login window tricks, Part 3: Hide certain user accounts

By: jeremy

jeremy — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:39:57 +0000

Hello this is a great guide but there is a flaw I noticed which is when you are logged off you can’t see it but I have two admin accounts and it says my username’s imac, is there a way to fix this?

By: alex

alex — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:26:36 +0000

just turn off fast user switching

By: unkz

unkz — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:20:01 +0000

Everything seems to work here but I have one problem… while the hidden user acct is logged in it DOES seem to appear in the fast user switching menu… so it’s only hidden while logged out. is there a way to hide the acct from this menu even while it’s logged in?

By: Ronald Himes

Ronald Himes — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:27:37 +0000

OH… and to get to the “Name and Password” fields while the “Other…” option is disabled, do the following:

1.) At the list of users, press the down arrow to highlight one of the accounts.
2.) Press Option+Enter to switch to the “Name and Passwords” fields.

To re-enable the “Other…”:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED -bool TRUE

To restore hidden accounts:

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList

By: Ronald Himes

Ronald Himes — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:21:49 +0000

Am I correct in understanding that what you are trying to accomplish is hiding a particular user account AND also to hide the “Other…” button? Here is my situation: I have the “Guest” account enabled but I wanted to hide it so that I may log a guest onto the computer, but not have that option displayed by default on the menu. I also wanted to hide the “Other…” option (similar to pressing “CTRL+ALT+Delete+Delete on the classic Windows logon screen).

Here’s the solution:
1.) sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add short_username
2.) sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED -bool FALSE

That should do it!

By: AlmostMacMaster

AlmostMacMaster — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:27:53 +0000

Is is possible to hide accounts in the Accounts tab within System Preferences (I already use the “Name and Password” option to log in)?
Thanks!

By: Ant

Ant — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:34:11 +0000

The Illusive Man,
Yes, this works in 10.6.

By: The Illusive Man

The Illusive Man — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:57:57 +0000

Greetings, Does this work on OS X 10.6 aka Snow Leopard?

By: Jibz

Jibz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:16:09 +0000

I just want the admin account to install applications, but I wont be ever logging into it. Thanks!

By: Ant

Ant — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:54:11 +0000

Jibz,
I’m not sure I understand your question, but I’ll give it a shot. To the best of my knowledge, you cannot prevent the Other option from displaying in the login window. How else would you log in with the hidden user, aside from going to a basic name & password login window?

By: Jibz

Jibz — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:14:45 +0000

How do I make a hidden account without it showing Other in the login windows and stay hidden in the system preferences. If what you said works then the Other and The users in the Syss Prefs will show up. Thanks a lot!

By: Ant

Ant — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:12:37 +0000

Notha,
Do you have any users accounts still visible or did you hide them all? If you’re hiding all of the users on your Mac you might be better off not using this method. Instead, just go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options and then select the option to display login window as “Name and password”.

By: notha

notha — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:41:05 +0000

When I set the Admin user be hidden it works but there’s no “other” menu in the list. How to have this appear in the login screen ?

By: egmoo

egmoo — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:59:52 +0000

Thanks! I made a secret admin account with this!
-egmoo