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I came across an article explaining how to load your desktop before you login.

  • Does anyone know if this works in Lion?
  • Is there any reason I should avoid attempting it?

Load your desktop before login

  1. Go to System Preferences → Users&Groups → Login Options to enable automatic login.

  2. Then, copy and paste the following code into TextEdit.app:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>        
    <key>AbandonProcessGroup</key>    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>                  <string>com.luomat.loginhook</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession</string>
            <string>-suspend</string>
        </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>              <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

  3. Go to Format → Make Plain Text and save the file as

    com.luomat.loginhook-2.plist

    and put it in

    ~/Library/LaunchAgents

  4. After rebooting your computer, you'll notice the login screen shows up, but when you log in, your desktop and all your startup apps will be loaded and ready to go.

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What this is doing is the equivalent of choosing "Login Window..." from the fast user switching menu as soon as you log in. I'd test it out by creating a test user and doing it there. – eyemyth Mar 12 '12 at 14:21

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

As @eyemyth said above, the script above is the equivalent of choosing "Login Window..." from menu bar when you have user switching enabled.

The only security 'issue' I can see with doing this is that momentarily your desktop will be shown until the computer calls the script - depending on how many scripts you have or how busy your login is that may not be instantly.

Also, someone (correct me if I'm wrong) could boot into single user mode, delete the plist file and then reboot - though this is an extreme.

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If somebody has physical access to your Mac and can boot into single user mode, there's not much they can't do. You can set up an admin account and gain root access within a few minutes if you know what you're doing. – eyemyth Mar 12 '12 at 23:51
@eyemyth It goes without saying: physical security is just as important as virtual security – OrangeBox Mar 13 '12 at 0:03

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