SecureOhio :: Disabling Guest Accounts

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disable guest accounts

In addition to the Administrator account, your operating system also comes with a Guest account. This account is often enabled without you knowing and can be exploited to gain access to essential parts of your computer. This default Guest account is almost never necessary, and it is good practice to disable this account.

To disable the Guest account in Windows XP:

Navigate to your control panel
Click User Accounts
Click the Guest account
If the Guest account is turned on click “Turn off the guest account”

To disable the Guest account in OS X:

Download and install the trial version of PList Edit Pro from: http://homepage.mac.com/bwebster/plisteditpro.html
On your Mac, go to /Library/Preferences and copy the file called com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist to your Desktop
Double-click on the new copy of com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist on your Desktop
Expand Root (under the Property List column) and find the option for guestAccess
Change the value of guestAccess to no
Save the file and exit out of PList Edit Pro
Copy com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist back into your /Library/Preferences folder
Restart your computer

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