Second user account or partition?

[thecounthahaha]

Hi all,

I'd like to create a second user on my laptop for specifically music gigs that I do. At the moment, I'm getting some crashes which are not very good in a live setting! I think its because I have so many other things running/installed in the background.

How do I create a second user which will look like a clean install when I log in? I've just tried it, but the new account can see all of the admin account's apps and activity monitoring things.

Can this be done through second accounts or do I need to partition to get a clean install?

Thanks very much!

 

[Weaselboy]

Any account you create will be able to see the Applications folder and also launch and view Activity Monitor. Why do either of those things concern you in the context of what you are trying to accomplish?

Are you just trying a second account in hopes of that account not having so many things running?

Each account has ~/Library/LaunchAgents this folder in the users folder for that account where launch items can be. They can also be in the login items section of the account in Users & Groups.

But in addition to that, launch items can be in these three folders that are not part of the users account, but launch systemwide no matter which account is running. That may be the source of your issue.

/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/StartupItems

 

[KALLT]

In addition to what Weaselboy said, you might want to do a check with Etrecheck. It looks through your system for the above-mentioned programs that can start upon launch or programs that can cause other errors, like old or broken drivers or even malware/adware. You could also post it here for others to have look at.

If you want to hide your applications from other user accounts then you have to install them in the Applications folder in your home directory, not the local directory (the folder may not exist, so you have to create it manually. The icon in Finder will change if you did this correctly).

 

[barbu]

Hi all,

I'd like to create a second user on my laptop for specifically music gigs that I do. At the moment, I'm getting some crashes which are not very good in a live setting! I think its because I have so many other things running/installed in the background.

How do I create a second user which will look like a clean install when I log in? I've just tried it, but the new account can see all of the admin account's apps and activity monitoring things.

Can this be done through second accounts or do I need to partition to get a clean install?

Thanks very much!

If you want a truly viriginal state to boot up for gigs, a secondary partition may be a good way to go. It would add some overhead as far as keeping stuff updated, but it would allow you to have a very stable working environment. If you probably didn't need good low-latency hardware access, i would even consider a virtual machine. But a small alternative partition should be easy enough to live with. You could even keep your loops/samples/music/etc files on your main partition or external drive to keep the size of the secondary partition sensible.

 

[thecounthahaha]

Cool, thanks guys.

Any account you create will be able to see the Applications folder and also launch and view Activity Monitor. Why do either of those things concern you in the context of what you are trying to accomplish?

Are you just trying a second account in hopes of that account not having so many things running?

Each account has ~/Library/LaunchAgents this folder in the users folder for that account where launch items can be. They can also be in the login items section of the account in Users & Groups.

But in addition to that, launch items can be in these three folders that are not part of the users account, but launch systemwide no matter which account is running. That may be the source of your issue.

/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/StartupItems

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong /Library, but if I delete them they are deleted from all accounts...

In addition to what Weaselboy said, you might want to do a check with Etrecheck. It looks through your system for the above-mentioned programs that can start upon launch or programs that can cause other errors, like old or broken drivers or even malware/adware. You could also post it here for others to have look at.

If you want to hide your applications from other user accounts then you have to install them in the Applications folder in your home directory, not the local directory (the folder may not exist, so you have to create it manually. The icon in Finder will change if you did this correctly).

Cool - I'll download and have a look.

If you want a truly viriginal state to boot up for gigs, a secondary partition may be a good way to go. It would add some overhead as far as keeping stuff updated, but it would allow you to have a very stable working environment. If you probably didn't need good low-latency hardware access, i would even consider a virtual machine. But a small alternative partition should be easy enough to live with. You could even keep your loops/samples/music/etc files on your main partition or external drive to keep the size of the secondary partition sensible.

Yeah I think that'll be a worst case scenario, possibly back on Yosemite just to get a more solid OS.

 

[Weaselboy]

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong /Library, but if I delete them they are deleted from all accounts...

Just to clarify what I am saying. If the launch agent is in the users ~/Library/LaunchAgents folder, that launch item would only run for that user. But if it is in the systemwide /Library/LaunchAgents folder, it would launch for all users.