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briegull

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 9, 2008
12
4
I set my daughter up as a standard user on my MBP running Yosemite. She has access to the Mac applications - but how do I allow her to use Excel and Word and Photoshop? I seem to recall that I used to be able to set that second users could use applications stored in the application folder - but that doesn't seem to be an option now. What am I missing?
 

Taz Mangus

macrumors 604
Mar 10, 2011
7,815
3,504
I set my daughter up as a standard user on my MBP running Yosemite. She has access to the Mac applications - but how do I allow her to use Excel and Word and Photoshop? I seem to recall that I used to be able to set that second users could use applications stored in the application folder - but that doesn't seem to be an option now. What am I missing?

What do you mean by *allow* her to use? As long as the application is in the Applications folder she should be able to run it. You need to give more background information on how you steeper daughter's account.
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,757
4,583
Delaware
Go to your System Preferences, then to Parental Controls.

Unlock the pane by clicking on the padlock and entering your admin password.
Choose your daughter's user account.

Click Limit Applications
And
Allow any apps that you want to allow from the list.
The apps will likely be listed under Other Apps.
Click the padlock to lock the pane when you are finished - although it will likely relock automatically when you close that pane.
And, that should allow your daughter with a standard account to use only those apps that you allow.
 

briegull

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 9, 2008
12
4
That did it!

My daughter's in her forties, so setting parental controls seems ridiculous, but that is exactly what I had to do. On Yosemite, on my 2014 MBP, creating a standard user did NOT allow access to all the applications, only the "harmless" ones that Apple deemed okay. Once I "limited" access to certain apps, and then went back on with her account and repeatedly approved allowing things that I had no idea I HAD (certain google hidden bits, etc) all worked well.

I knew it had to just be some setting - but why all apps wouldn't be allowed by default, I don't know. Interesting. Though of course I've updated as requested, I was in the Yosemite beta program; I wonder if that got set then (there is an account I did NOT create called "test kid" which I'd never noticed before) and never got UN-set. Maybe someone who has Yosemite and has never tried creating a second standard user could let me know if they have a similar problem.
 

Taz Mangus

macrumors 604
Mar 10, 2011
7,815
3,504
My daughter's in her forties, so setting parental controls seems ridiculous, but that is exactly what I had to do. On Yosemite, on my 2014 MBP, creating a standard user did NOT allow access to all the applications, only the "harmless" ones that Apple deemed okay. Once I "limited" access to certain apps, and then went back on with her account and repeatedly approved allowing things that I had no idea I HAD (certain google hidden bits, etc) all worked well.

I knew it had to just be some setting - but why all apps wouldn't be allowed by default, I don't know. Interesting. Though of course I've updated as requested, I was in the Yosemite beta program; I wonder if that got set then (there is an account I did NOT create called "test kid" which I'd never noticed before) and never got UN-set. Maybe someone who has Yosemite and has never tried creating a second standard user could let me know if they have a similar problem.

If you had setup the standard user account and not enabled perental controls your daughter should have been able to access any application that is installed on the computer. This is how it works on my iMac installed with 10.10.2. My kids account is a standard user and they have access to all apllications I have installed on the computer and I did not enable perantal controls. I suspect that your install of a Yosemite beta has created the issue you are having.

I suggest you do a clean install of Yosemite. Make sure you do a backup first. When you re-install again I suggest that you do not copy over any backuped system files and only copy over neccessary user data from the backup. I also suggest that you don't use migration assistant, copy the data user over manually.
 
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