OS X Mountain Lion: Guest user preferences

Guest user preferences

If you want to let other people use your computer temporarily and don’t want to add them as users, you can allow guest users. You specify whether guest users can connect to shared folders or log in to your computer. You can also set parental controls on guest users to restrict how they use your computer.

When guests log in, they don’t need a password. While logged in, they can’t change user settings or computer settings. They also can’t log in remotely if you turn on remote login in Sharing preferences.

Important: Files created by a guest user are deleted when the user logs out. A temporary home folder is created for the guest user’s files, but this folder and its contents are removed when the user logs out.
Option Description

Allow guests to log in to this computer

To let others log in to your computer without entering a password, select this checkbox. Guest users can’t log in remotely.

Allowing guest login enables the Find My Mac service of iCloud to locate your computer when someone finds it, logs in as a guest, and uses Safari to access the Internet. You must turn on Find My Mac before you lose your computer.

If you select this option, you can also select the following one.

Enable parental controls

To set up parental controls for guest users with log-in privileges, select this checkbox. To set up the parental controls, click Open Parental Controls.

Allow guests to connect to shared folders

To let a guest user access shared folders from another computer on your network, select this checkbox.