Do you assign yourself a standard user account

[Synchronicity]

This comment by @WayneG has me curious:

@WayneG

take reasonable steps to minimize the damage should someone access our devices. One of my favorites is:

“an administrator should create a standard user account to use when administrator privileges are not needed. If the security of a standard user is compromised, the potential harm is far more limited than if the user has administrator privileges.”

Do any of you create a standard user account for yourself on your own Mac and use it most of the time, only signing into the administrator account when you need to do administrative tasks?

My own view is that the sudo command and modern versions of macOS constantly asking for a password or biometric authentication before doing anything remotely risky makes this unnecessary for most of us, but I’m willing to hear other opinions.

[Medievalist]

Yes, I create a standard User accoiunt and use it. I do not run as Admin.

[Dawfnls]

I’ve always run as an admin account and never had any issues.

[Medievalist]

I’ve seen professional Unix Admins get fished or tricked successfuly. Runnin as a Standartd user gives a second layer of protection and a bit of time to think. Fast Sser switching works well; I rarely have to use the Admin account.

[Synchronicity]

I haven’t shared a mac in a while and I’d forgotten about fast user switching. It’s great to be able to not have to log out and log back in to switch accounts.

[jaketheo]

@Synchronicity

Do any of you create a standard user account for yourself on your own Mac and use it most of the time, only signing into the administrator account when you need to do administrative tasks?

First time I’ve even heard of this!

Curious to know more from those who do this… I’ve always just had one admin account.

[jec0047]

While I think this is good practice, I don’t do it

[tomalmy]

I’ve always use admin accounts because it saves the hassle of having to log into a separate admin account just to do restricted things.

And I have two admin accounts, with one for recovery and testing purposes in case my regular one gets hosed. It also gives me an account that I can give to Apple if servicing is required.

[dario]

No.

I have never used non-admin accounts on my Macs (except for testing purposes every now and then). Given how much Apple babysits us these days with constant warnings, permissions and password prompts, I don’t think I can do much damage as an admin. (I know that’s technically not correct, but realistically, if you know what you are doing, I feel pretty safe running only an admin account on my Macs.)

Yet I’d always create a standard account for parents or anyone else lech tech-savvy just as an added layer of protection (mostly to prevent them from installing malware apps).

[dario]

I used Fast User Switching for a while with a second account. It’s excellent with Touch ID, as you can use it to quickly switch users.