I like fast user switching but I'm not keen on it in my menu bar, I'm wondering if it's possible to put it in the Apple menu? Or somehow change the Logout option in the Apple menu to switch users instead?
2 Answers
If adding a keyboard shortcut would be acceptable, then one can invoke CGSession -suspend
to show the fast user switching. (You can use CGSession -switchToUserID `id -g bob`
, for example, to switch to a specific user.)
Searching for that word CGSession
will reveal many options, like Equivalent of Win-L on Mac or Create a keyboard shortcut for fast user switching in Mac OS X.
And rather than adding it to the Apple menu, in 10.6 Snow Leopard it's quite easy to add it to the Services menu of each application:
Start Applications » Automator
Select "Service" for the template of the new Automator workflow
In the top of the right pane, select "Service receives no input in any application"
Drag action "Run Shell Script" from the left pane into the workflow on the right pane
Leave Shell at its default "/bin/bash", and replace the default command
cat
with the following, without any line breaks:/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend
Optional: click the Run button to test
Hit Cmd-S to save. The name you type will be the name in the Services menu. The workflow will be saved in
~/Library/Services
.
To assign a keyboard shortcut, in 10.6:
- Open System Preferences » Keyboard » pane Keyboard Shortcuts
- Select "Services" in the left pane
- Scroll down to General in the right pane
- Double-click to the right of the Automator workflow you just created
- Press the keys you want to use, and switch panes to ensure the new shortcut is saved
- Please note that in 10.6 there is a bug that might prevent you from assigning services to function keys.
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I tried assigning Cmd-L as the shortcut, to make is similar to Windows' Win-L, but that didn't work because some applications, like Web Browsers, use Cmd-L shortcut too. So I ended up assigning Cmd-Shift-L, instead. Aug 25, 2014 at 14:53
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1I tried assigning Cmd-L as the shortcut, to make is similar to Windows' Win-L, but that didn't work because some applications, like Web Browsers, use Cmd-L shortcut too. I tried some other combinations, but none of them worked in all the apps I use regularly. So I ended up assigning Cmd-Shift-2, instead. Aug 25, 2014 at 15:11
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1Just to make this more up-to-date: I can confirm this still works on Yosemite 10.10.5.– Arc676Sep 4, 2015 at 9:47
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For anyone wondering how to edit an existing "Service": in finder, navigate to
~/Library/Services
(or press Cmd-Shift-G and type the path directly), then double click on your "Service". It should open in automator. Jul 5, 2021 at 21:13
If you're using one of the popular application launchers such as Quicksilver or LaunchBar, check to see if they can bring you to the login window.
In Launchbar, the command is Login Window
, part of the User Accounts index.