[ProtectOurFreedom]

How do you know if you are running as root user or standard user?

[dayglored]

> How do you know if you are running as root user or standard user?

Open System Preferences, then User Accounts, then find your user name in the list of accounts. It should tell you if your account is Admin or Standard. If it’s Standard then you are not root, and can’t be even if you try.

If it’s Admin, then you can become root if you request it. To tell if you are root, open Terminal (in Applications, Utilities) and type the command:

whoami

Then the Return key. It will print your username.

[Swordmaker]

How do you know if you are running as root user or standard user?

No OS X Mac runs as a Root user. . . that has to be activated and then even then you don't run in root. From OS X, Root is a one time command user that is used by the Terminal. If you are running your Mac by UNIX™ command line, you can be a permanent Root User, but that is so rare, only real Geeks might do it. . . and then they generally are not going to put their Macs to sleep.

Most Mac users are going to be either an Administrator user (default out-of-the-box user), or Standard user for those who know how to be safe computer user).

You should be running as a Standard user with a second user in reserve as the Administrator for installing software and doing system routines.

To find out what kind of user you are running as, go to the Black Apple Menu and select System Preferences. . . /Users and Groups and see if you are running as Standard or Admin.

If you are running as Admin, create a new user by following these steps:

1. Unlock the Users and Groups pane by clicking on the pad lock at the bottom left of the window. It may ask for your password.
2. Create the NEW user by clicking on the PLUS (+) button on the bottom of the user box.
3. Make that new user an Admin user by providing a name for the account you will remember (Freedom Admin), give it a hard password that you will NOT forget using both upper and lower case letters, numbers, and at least one keyboard symbol.
4. Depending on the version of OS X, it may allow you to establish a short name for the account. Don't call it "admin" or anything a hacker can figure out. Use something you will know but can't be figured out by knowing you.
5. When you have successfully created the new administrator account, change YOUR account to a Standard user from Administrator by either unchecking the "Allow this user to administer this computer" or changing the drop down menu selector from Administrator to Standard, depending on the Version of OS X. (You can still do everything from your standard account including install software, but you will have to invoke the admin account by entering the administrator's name and password to do it.).
6. Make sure you know your password in your account, if not, change IT to something you won't forget using the same criteria above.
7. click "Log in Options" at the bottom of the user list.
8. Set automatic log in to off.
9. Check the "Show Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down Buttons" Box.
10. Check the "Show fast menu switching as:" Box.
11. Set Fast Menu switching to: "Full name".
12. Click the lock to re-lock the preference pane.
13. Close the preference pane.
14. Under the black Apple Menu, log out of your current standard user.
15. Log onto the new Administrator account and provide your Apple ID and password to re-establish your computer's link to Apple. There is no need to import any data into this account. The less data here, the better.
16. Log out of the Administrator Account.
17. Log back into your personal, now standard account.

You will notice your user name is now on the menu bar just to the left of the Spotlight search icon and if you click on it, you can switch users rapidly to the Administrator Account (you'll have to enter the admin password) to do any housekeeping or install software. If you want to download or install software, the system will prompt you, as a standard user, to enter the admin's user name and password. You will not have to switch to the admin account to do it, but you will have to know the admin name and password to do it.

If you log onto your administrator account for any reason, ALWAYS log off when you are done. NEVER LEAVE IT RUNNING!

This is the safest way to use your Mac computer.

To activate Root, a user MUST be running as an Administrator and then open the Terminal and then deliberately activate Root and give it a Root user name and root user password.