

While this is useful – you can install software, and perform other actions, after entering your password – it can also be risky.įirst, let’s look at the two main types of user accounts. Since there has to be at least one user with administrative rights on your Mac, that first account is an administrator account. When you first start up a new Mac, the Mac OS X setup assistant asks you for your name, a user name and a password, and uses this information to set up your first user account. You can check that the name has been changed by looking at the computer's local-network-name, which is given below the Computer Name field.How To Mac Security Tip: Use a Standard User Account Press Enter or click anywhere outside of the Sharing preference pane to set the new name.Highlight the current name with your cursor and enter a new one.Click on the field Computer Name: at the top.Select Sharing in the preferences pane.Launch System Preferences from your Mac's Dock, from the Applications folder, or from the Apple menu bar ( -> System Preferences.).Whatever the reason, here's how to change the name of your Mac. Perhaps you just want to give your Mac a recognizable but less personally identifying moniker, for privacy reasons. Or maybe the Mac you're using still has the name of the previous owner. If your Mac's network settings are reset, its name may be changed to "MacBook Pro" or something similar, making it harder to identify amongst a list of surrounding computers. But there are good reasons why you might want to change it. This default name is used for identifying the device when someone wants to AirDrop a file to you, when you're connected to a local network, when you're using the Find My app, and more. When you set up a new Mac, macOS gives the computer a generic name that includes the first name of the owner – "Tim's MacBook Pro," for example.
