Admin & Standard account question

Associate
Joined
4 Jun 2003
Posts
903
Location
UK, Dorset
I would like to drop my account from Admin to Standard. So, if i create a new Admin account and drop my current admin account to not being able to administer the mac, will i have any problems with using my now standard account? Make sense? :rolleyes:
 
Associate
OP
Joined
4 Jun 2003
Posts
903
Location
UK, Dorset
Yeah i missed an ideal opertunity when i got a new iMac, but got so carried away with setting it all up i forgot to do it on a Standard account:p
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jan 2007
Posts
8,944
Location
Manchester
The "admin" account isn't a real root account. If you're looking at it from a security point of view you I don't really see how much you'd gain from demoting your account to standard.
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Aug 2003
Posts
24,261
The only difference between an Admin and a standard account is that one is a member of the group 'Admin'.

You only need one account to be part of the Admin group so no there's no problem in making a new account to be Admin and demoting your own account to standard.

Theory behind it being that if something/someone were to get hold of your account while you were logged in they still can't do anything.

And although the Admin group aren't proper root accounts, they effectively are because they just tell the system to do stuff as root for them, and it obeys.

It's best practice to have two accounts and use the standard one, but hardly anyone does... I don't. I will next time I reinstall my Mac, but... that'll be ****ing ages
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Aug 2005
Posts
8,840
Location
Clydebank
i created a new account called administrator and demoted my own account

Basicaly it just asks you sometimes to authenticate. So you enter the admin name and pass e.g. when adding apps to the applications folder. Or installing software.

When editing files at the terminal you have to su administrator, and the sudo the command e.g to edit the hosts file
 
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