Creating a New Account

Article, Mac OS X, Novice, System Preferences | March 27th, 2008

Keeping things organized is very important in life. With User Accounts in Mac OS X each person that uses your computer can have their very own account. This way you can keep you own files organized the way you like it and they can keep theirs the way they like it!

1. Open System Preferences by clicking on the Apple icon on the top left corner of your screen and click on System Preferences.
2. Click on the Accounts icon near the bottom left of the System Preferences window.
3. You will most likely have to authenticate as the Admin user before you can make any changes here. Click the lock icon on the bottom left of the screen.
4. Enter your Admin user name and password and click the OK button. If you don’t have this information then you’ll need to ask someone who knows it otherwise you can’t add a new user account.
5. Click the + button to add a new user. This button is directly above the lock you just pressed on to authenticate.
6. In the window that pops up select what type of account you want to create. You will most likely create just a Standard account, but if you want the user to have maximum control of the computer you can create an Administrator account. Standard users will have full control of their account, but won’t be able to add new Applications to the computer or change any settings not related to their own account. Another account option is the Managed with Parental Controls account. This account is great for parents that have children that they want to restrict certain aspects of what this user account can do, such as web sites they cannot visit and even the amount of time they can spend on the computer per day.
7. After you select the account type, simply fill out the user name, password, and password hint (just incase you or they forget it!). Then hit Create Account.

That’s it! You’ve just created a new account.