How To: Add contact information to your Mac's login screen
If you believe in the kindness of strangers, this tip might be for you. Most laptop users fear that their computer will be lost or stolen. Assuming that the right sort of person finds your laptop, however, they might be willing to return it to its rightful owner, if they knew how to contact you.
It is possible to add a short message to the login screen of your Mac. The easiest way to do that is by using Onyx; click on the Parameters tab, and then type your message into the area shown above. I suggest including your name, phone number, and whatever else you think increases your chances of getting it back.
This won't help if a thief has ripped off your MacBook while you weren't looking, but it just might help if you accidentally leave it in a cab and someone trustworthy gets in next. Hey, it could happen!
Note that "certain special characters" includes ( ), so if you want to include a phone number, I suggest using a format such as xxx-xxx-xxxx.
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If you believe in the kindness of strangers, this tip might be for you. Most laptop users fear that their computer will be lost or stolen....
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I'd recommend the application Ravissant for this. It lets you not only enter the text in a nice GUI showing what it will look like, but like Secrets and Onix lets you change the background picture.
However with Ravissant you can completely customize what logo image appears on the login screen as well as some other cool stuff. And it's all in one place and really easy to see as its WYSIWYG.
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Ravissant.shtml
I didn't know this was possible.
I use Prey to protect against theft, I'll have to use this in case the right person finds it.
Um... how about just putting a sticker on the computer that has the necessary info? No installing software or hacking with the settings necessary, and works even if the computer has run out of juice.
September 24 2010 at 4:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThat is certainly an option. And what TJ presented was another option. Neither is superior to the other, and it comes down to a matter of personal preference. I, personally, don't want a sticker marring the good looks of my Macbook. Not outside, not inside, not on the top, nor on the bottom.
September 24 2010 at 9:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAnother way of doing it might be to type the message onto a copy of the the background image, and use something like Secrets to set it as the login background.
It would accept all characters, and you could write as big as you want to get the attention of whoever finds it.
Example: http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/2029/img0118trh.jpg
This took me all of 5 minutes to do, and set-up... Onyx not required.
(Oh, and don't mind the Dell monitor. My MacBook is just plugged in underneath)
While offering a reward might be acceptable, I think that we should, perhaps, stop short of putting credit card information in this position.
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