[jszrules]

Hi, I am wondering if the following is possible...
Let's say you have a bunch of people around and they want to go on your computer to play music without them messing up anything else on the computer. Is there a way to "lock" everything (applications, Finder, etc) on your computer except for one or several selected apps (iTunes in this case)? This way iTunes is the only thing on your computer that is accessible until you type the administrator password or something. Is there any way to do this?
Thanks.

[alphasubzero949]

The easiest thing to do is to set up a limited account without a password where you can lock whatever apps you want (and even system prefs, CD burning, etc). Then activate fast user switching. For iTunes, be sure you uncheck "Copy all files to the iTunes Music folder" before doing anything else. Then you can import your library (first export your library in your account and save it to your public folder or somewhere else where you can gain access to it in the "guest" account).

[chabig]

I have an account for just this purpose on my son's computer. The name of the account is "Party Guest" and it requires no password. In Account prefs, the only app that the user is allowed to run is iTunes, and iTunes is set as a Startup item.

Chris

[jszrules]

Originally posted by alphasubzero949:
For iTunes, be sure you uncheck "Copy all files to the iTunes Music folder" before doing anything else. Then you can import your library (first export your library in your account and save it to your public folder or somewhere else where you can gain access to it in the "guest" account).

will this procedure change ANYTHING in iTunes for the admin account?

[alphasubzero949]

Originally posted by jszrules:
will this procedure change ANYTHING in iTunes for the admin account?

No.

[jszrules]

Originally posted by alphasubzero949:
For iTunes, be sure you uncheck "Copy all files to the iTunes Music folder" before doing anything else. Then you can import your library (first export your library in your account and save it to your public folder or somewhere else where you can gain access to it in the "guest" account).

i did this...exported the .xml file to my public folder, then tried to import it from the new account, but a message popped up and said that some of the files could not be imported. all of the correct playlist names appeared in the left bar, but none of the songs showed up. so the playlist is still empty. what did i do wrong? thanks.

[Mithras]

The music is probably in your admin user's ~/Music directory, which only that user can read. Either
a) change the permissions on that folder (File:Get Info) so that others can read (and copy to enclosed files)
or
b) move your iTunes folder to /Users/Shared and stick an alias in your admin user's ~/Music folder.

[alphasubzero949]

Set the permissions of the folder where your music resides where others can read only. Seems that it is currently set to no access. Make sure that you also change the permissions for everything enclosed in the folder by pressing "Apply to enclosed items."

Try reimporting your library on the other account again once you have made this fix.

[jszrules]

it worked. thanks a lot for the help.