Hide system-wide preference panes from non-admin users
Oct 09, '03 10:42:00AM • Contributed by: Anonymous
In setting up a multi-user computer for our music lab, I found that even when you uncheck the User can change: "password" option, the user can still access it if they have access to the System Preferences. Though they can't change it through "my accounts", they CAN change it through "accounts". As they need access to some of the other control panels, I couldn't use the option to disallow access to most preferences.
However, by locating the Accounts.prefpane in the /System -> Library -> PreferencePanes folder, and changing the owner to the admin user, and making so that others have no access, you can effectively hide it for anyone but the Admin user. Use the Terminal or Get Info to change the file's owner, and then restrict access for anyone other than the owner.