Tip: Require password to restart OS X
So, last week I was running this ridiculous database migration for importing WordNet into MySQL via ActiveRecord. (I would like to file a complaint by the way. If a migration takes 8 days to finish, you need to use something other than ActiveRecord to get stuff into the database. Seriously.)
A family member decided they would like to watch a TV show on my laptop. Fairly normal. Unfortunately, my PowerBook decided to act up and wouldn’t play any sound. Still not sure what the deal is with that, it’s happening off and on. Only thing that fixes it is a reboot. Well, the family member in question took it upon themselves to reboot while my migration was in progress and about 98% done. For those of you reading this in horror, don’t worry, I hacked on the migration code for about 20 minutes and got it to resume where it left off.
That said, I decided I didn’t want that ever happening again. The obvious solution was to check off the little checkbox in System Preferences -> Security for “Require password to shutdown or reboot”. Except that it doesn’t exist. Apple? Are you listening? I’d like to be able to remind users of my computer that they really need to ask me before rebooting my computer. Anyways. Here’s how to do it without the handy checkbox:
Create a new user on your machine. Regular old user, no admin access. Name it “Lockdown”. Give it a lightning bolt icon or something. Enable fast user switching. Log in to your account as normal, then once you’re logged in, switch to the Lockdown account. Sign it in, leave it running, then switch back. Now OS X will require a password before rebooting.
It’s a hack, and there’s no really good reason to leave it running all the time, but it’s a good idea if you’ve got an important process going that you really don’t want getting killed off accidentally by well-meaning family members. And yes, they could still hit the power button or pull the battery on the laptop, but that’s a lot harder to do accidentally.
Or, you could just set the Mac to require a password on boot and set a password on the screensaver. Whenever you walk away from the laptop, lock the screen. Nobody can use it while you’re gone. Locking out the restart/shutdown isn’t sufficient because they could just unplug it and pull the battery.
Ted:
Thought about doing that, but rejected it. It already requires a password on boot, but I prefer to keep it logged in all the time. My objective isn’t to prevent family members from using my computer, just to keep them from rebooting at inconvenient moments. And as I already mentioned, I’m aware of the of their ability to drop power entirely, but that doesn’t happen by accident. The password is just meant to cause, “Oh, hey, maybe I should ask first before I do this.”
Oh man, I hate it when that happens. Too many times have I come back to my PC to find that someone else has gone on to it and done something that has been a pain in the rear to get back to and/or fix something. Maybe a PC guard dog might in order! Shiny Up, Poet Horton
The answer is don’t walk away from your computer. Obviously easier said than done. But if you do leave the PC unattended be sure to set it up to use a password to get back on. Diana P.
I think your solution is brilliant! Thanks for sharing.
Rule number one in my house is “Nobody touches my computer, ever” I hated to make that rule but too many things can happen, and have. We had a security system installed in our house last week. While I was in the middle of a large project on my PC when the phone rang and I had to leave in a hurry, did not get a chance to save or close what I was working on. When I came back home, my Internet connection had been disconnected and all of my work had been lost. I asked my husband if the workers had done something to the phone lines and one of the workers spoke up and told me that they had had to interrupt our phone service for a short few minutes. Boy was I upset, and told that they should never to anything like that without first talking with the homeowner first. I didn’t even get an apology from the jerk. The next day Quality Control showed up at the door and I gave him a piece of my mind about the situation. Cheryl Beckham
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