Auto restart & login

[MartyStickle]

OK. My imac runs weather software (weatherCat) which reports weather to Wunderground weather. I have automatic restart on power failure selected in the Energy Prefs. I currently have two user accounts, mine and a guest account.

OK, we are going away for a month and want to leave the computer on and reporting the weather to the web.. I don't want our house sitter to have access to my computer. If I have a power failure, then the computer will startup again, but it won't login unless I enable automatic logins. So, how do I handle this?

I had originally thought that I'd log out of my account and just leave the guest account active. I guess I could transfer the WeatherCat software to the Guest account and I guess enable auto login for that. Is this correct?

I think I haven't been too clear here and hope someone understands what my question actually is.

[Paul F.]

I think I get the question...
And your solution of having it auto-login to a different user account is probably the easiest solution.
Not sure if you'd want to use the "Guest" account, or create a new non-admin account for the software to run under.

[onthedownlow]

Odds are the power won't fail (or have a UPS?), so before you leave just leave your account logged in running the software and just 'switch user' to the Guest account. Your account will always be running unless there is a power issue.

Or if you don't want them having access at all, create another account (disable the Guest) and then when logged in to your account 'switch user' and leave it at the logon screen. Unless she knows the password to either account, nobody will be getting in to use it.

Or just enable the password-needed on a screensaver for your account and leave it like that.

[TheTominator]

Lock the door to the room that contains the computer.

[Speedy]

Put your computer in a locked room.

[MartyStickle]

Thanks all for the feedback. No lock on the door and besides, we are comfortable with the house sitter. I've recently bought a UPS, so I think the simple answer is to just log out of my account and into the guest account. If there's a momentary power failure, than the UPS should handle that. If there's a long term power failure, than too bad. When I return and restart everything the missing data uploads.

[space-time]

I don't think you can use the guest account since that is wiped clean every time. I let kids play in there since they can't do much damage

I would try to make the computer log in automatically but kick in the screensaver avter about 1 minute and in security preferences you can set the screensaver to ask for password. If there is indeed a power failure, it is very unlikely that the house sitter is there the minute the power comes back, and if they are, they probably check other things, not the iMac. Also If the house sitter is really mean they could unplug it, plug it back in and wait till it starts and then use your account before screensaver kicks in, but chances are they will not do that (otherwise you should not trust them with your house).