One of the smaller-but-still-useful new features in Leopard is the ability to create a Guest Account. Have you ever had a friend that wanted to quickly use your computer, but you were hesitant to let them have access to your account with all of your files on it? When you turn on Guest Account from the Accounts pane of System Preferences, a new account is created (with the obvious name, Guest Account) that does not have a password. However, every time someone logs into the guest account, a brand new, generic Mac OS X Leopard account is created for them on-the-fly, and when they log out of the guest account, all information and files in their home folder are deleted. Nevertheless, this allows them quick access to your computer when they need it, and it keeps all of your files safe from harm. (You can also specify Parental Controls on the Guest Account if you wish; Parental Controls to be reviewed on tomorrow’s Leopard Feature Presentation.)

Now granted, this is a very basic feature, and one that I’ve just described to you in a single paragraph, but my experiences with it have been worth its weight in gold. My younger brother has often wanted to use my MacBook for whatever reason (partly out of jealousy), and being able to have a Guest Account available has made me a lot more comfortable with letting him use it because he won’t have access to any of my other files. This is definitely a must useful new feature to come in Mac OS X Leopard.

Feature Satisfaction Rating:

Be sure to check out the other articles in the Leopard Feature Presentation, occurring throughout the month of November here on Webmacster87.info.

Tags: accounts, feature, friends, guest, Leopard Feature Presentation, Mac OS X Leopard, review, System Preferences