112. Switch to Another User  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 118 Add a New User 111 Log In from the Login Window
 SEE ALSO 113 Use the Shared Folder 114 Automatically Log Out
Suppose you're in the middle of typing an important email or working on a movie in iMovie, when your spouse comes in and asks to use the computer "just for a minute." Do you have to quit all your applications, log out, log in to the other account, wait around until it's your turn again, and then log back in using your own accountonly to spend another five minutes relaunching all your applications and getting your user environment and your iMovie project back the way you had them? Perish the thought. The Fast User Switching feature lets you immediately switch directly between user environments without the laborious process of repeatedly logging out and logging in as another user. When the feature is enabled, you can select any of the system's users from the User menu at the top-right of the screen; when you enter that user's password, you are taken directly to that user environment. This means that any number of users can be logged in at the same time, all concurrently running their own applications. You can see which users are logged in at any time by opening the User menu and seeing which ones are marked with a green check mark. If many users are logged in at once and all running their own applications, the system can run out of memory, which leads to very sluggish performance. It's best to keep simultaneous logins to a minimum, and to avoid using Fast User Switching while you're running resource-hungry applications.  NOTE You must have administrative privileges to enable Fast User Switching ; see 117 About Administrative Responsibilities for more information. However, after the feature is enabled, any user can switch to any other user, after entering a valid password.
112. Switch to Another User 
| 1. | Enable Fast User Switching
Open the System Preferences application (under the Apple menu); click Accounts to open the Accounts Preferences pane. Click Login Options and then click the Enable fast user switching check box (if it isn't enabled already). Choose also whether to display the list of names as text (the long or short name) or with icons. The menu bar changes to show your name in bold in the upper-right corner, next to the Spotlight icon. You can open this User menu to switch immediately to any other user.
| | 2. | Select the User to Switch To Click the User menu to see the list of available users. If any user is marked with a green check mark, that user is already logged in. Click the user to which you want to switch. TIP Switching to a user who is already logged in is faster than switching to a user who isn't. If the user is not currently logged in, the computer must perform a complete login operation, starting up any applications the new user has configured to start at login and setting up the user environment with all its trimmings (such as the Dock). This generally takes 10 to 20 seconds. However, if the user is already logged in, switching to her user environment should take only 1 or 2 seconds. A login dialog box similar to the one on the login window appears in the middle of the screen, with the selected user's name and a password input box. You can click Cancel if you change your mind about switching users. | | 3. | Enter the User's Password
Type the user's password; if you're letting another person switch to his account from within yours, let him sit down and type it. It is, after all, best for each user to keep his password secret!
If the password is entered correctly, the screen rotates out of sight and is replaced with the new user's login session.
| | 4. | Return to the Login Window A common scenario might be that you want to take a break from your work and leave the computer running, but you don't want to quit all your applications and log out; neither , however, do you want to lock the screen using a screensaver, preventing others from using the computer. Instead, you can use Fast User Switching to simply return to the main login window, leaving your session logged in, but allowing others to log in to their own sessions while you're gone. TIP When you wake the computer from sleep or a screensaver, if it is configured to prompt you for the current user's password, the dialog box also contains a Switch User button. Click this button to log in as another user, leaving the current user logged in in the background. From the User menu, select Login Window (the last entry). The screen rotates out of view and is replaced with the login window. Your user session is not suspended or terminatedyour applications are still running. You can see this by the green check mark next to your name in the login window. Click your name and enter your password to switch back to your user session. | | 5. | Shut Down or Restart with Other Users Logged In
If there are multiple users logged in at once, they might lose unsaved data in their applications if you shut down or restart the computer. To shut down or restart the computer while multiple users are logged in, you must be able to authenticate as an Admin user so that you can override the other users' login sessions. Standard users can't force other users' sessions to end.
Select Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu; a dialog box appears, informing you that there are other users logged in. Type the full name or short username of any Admin user (including yourself, if you are one), as well as that account's password; then click Shut Down or Restart , depending which you're doing. If the Admin user information is entered correctly, all login sessions are terminated without saving their data.
| TIP Naturally, it's best to log out of each user's login session properly before shutting down or restarting. If this is at all possible, switch to each logged-in account and select Log Out <User's Name> from the Apple menu before shutting down the Mac. You should perform step 5 in this task only if there is no other optionif you don't know the other users' passwords, for example.
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