Hi!
I share my puter with the wife and she likes to have her desktop with all the pretty pink colors and hearts. I like the manly colors and backgrounds. (of course)
The problem is this:
When we switch users, we have to go through this long drawn out process of clicking computer > logout > switch user > select user name > type in the user name I just clicked on > type in a password and finally the desktop appears.
The question is:
Is there a way to shorten this up or possibly do away with having to login each time we want to switch users? I do not need that much security on this system as it’s only used by me and my wife. Couldn’t find anything in the forums about this. (unless I missed it)
bruce32466 wrote:
> When we switch users, we have to go through this long drawn out process
> of clicking computer > logout > switch user > select user name > type in
> the user name I just clicked on > type in a password and finally the
> desktop appears.
>
> The question is:
> Is there a way to shorten this up or possibly do away with having to
> login each time we want to switch users?
In openSUSE’s KDE3, there’s a keyboard shortcut defined to switch users:
CTRL-ALT-Insert. It may be configurable for KDE4 as well.
You could try the user switch applet, right click on your panel and select “add to panel”
select “user switch applet”
This is a shorter way of switching users for the most part but you will still need passwords.
I know not having to type your password is easy but its not recommended, rather if you have 1 or 100 people who use your computer a password is a good idea.
Even if its just you and your wife its better security to use passwords, hey XP doesnt use passwords and look what happened there
Another approach is to share the same user ID, but each use a different desktop. You could even have several desktops each - eg you could have the odd numbered desktops and she could have the evens.
Bear in mind that the shortcuts given above leave the original user still logged in - ctrl+alt+f7 ctrl+alt+f8 to switch between users on kde.
Thanks for the info. I finally got around to trying this and this is a very acceptable solution. I placed it on both task bars (her’s and mine) and I can click her user name, works good, click my user name, works good, click her user name, works good, NOW here’s the problem: When I click my user name the second time to switch desktops, I get a solid white screen. I don’t know what to do with this one.
Doing it like this for years now: Machine is on 24/7, after a boot I login, my wife and daughter each log in as you describe. From there on, Ctrl-Alt-F7 brings on my own desktop, Ctrl-Alt-F8 my wife’s, Ctrl-Alt-F9 my daughter’s. Password is only needed the first time. And I bet there’s some option to tell the system NOT to lock the current user when switching.
And this used to be a 6 user situation. Always worked like a charm. I’ve always found that in this you can see the difference between real multi-user and the thing faked by other OS’s
