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I upgraded a Mac in my lab (23" iMac) to Lion. My MacBook Pro (mid 2007) is running Mountain Lion. For some reason the iMac is showing a different user password screen than my MBP - I can't figure out why. I like the new screen, and am trying to figure out why my MPB doesn't use it.

My MBP shows the "old" screen, with text boxes for user name and password, like this:
This screen hasn't changed on my MBP since Tiger at least.

The iMac shows only the user icon and a spot for password, like this:

I have a hard time thinking it's a hardware limitation issue. Could also be from some old setting, but the iMac used to use the old dialog too. (iMac originally ran Leopard, was upgraded to SL some time ago; same basic upgrade path as my MBP). Any ideas?

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Is this returning from sleep or on start up? – robmathers Jul 26 '12 at 21:33
The screenshot you show for the MBP is a screenshot of something earlier than Lion (I think it's actually a few versions earlier). Is it really the same dialog showing up in Mountain Lion? (I haven't seen it since Snow Leopard.) – jtbandes Jul 27 '12 at 4:39
Not easy to grab a screenshot of a locked computer - both are from a google image search. But yeah, except for having my user name pre-filled, the screen I see at login is identical to that. Googling this issue has turned up nothing. – dr.nixon Jul 27 '12 at 17:11

2 Answers

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Open the Users & Groups preference panel, and check the Display login window as: setting in Login Options (highlighted below). List of users should give the icon and password option, Name and password gives username and password text fields, albeit with the standard Lion grey linen background, not the dialog box you posted a picture of. enter image description here

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This isn't the issue, as far as I can tell. "List of Users" is the setting I have, and I do see the list of users at the main login screen - just not when waking from screensaver. I tried changing the setting several times, no effect. – dr.nixon Jul 27 '12 at 1:48
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The ScreenSaver dialog box changed in 10.7, switching to a user with a password dialog versus a user/pass combo dialog box. There is a way to revert to the older method by changing a file to be set to the old style - but I can't remember off the top of my head how to do that.

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I tried killing all prefs in Library (system and my account) related to login, but no dice. Still getting this old-school password-user combo box. If you could remember the specific file that needs to be edited that would help immensely. – dr.nixon Dec 5 '12 at 17:22
There is definitely something going on with a config file. If I create a new user account, the new dialog box appears as expected - but ONLY for that user. I can't seem to track down exactly what file needs to be fixed. Any help? – dr.nixon Jan 17 at 17:10

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