One of my first customizations after installing Mac OS X Lion was to remove the annoying login – username option from the top menu bar. And to explain “annoying”, I find it quite too long displaying my Name Surname, and an option that I would never need to use, as there’s only a single user on my Mac.
Removing it is quite easy: hold command button and drag it off the menu bar.
If you really want to keep it, you can reduce its length to the username or to an icon:
System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Login Options -> (Click on the bottom left lock if everything is greyed-out) -> Show fast switching user menu as… -> Check/uncheck to show/hide it, or use the drop-down menu for the various options.
Thanks for that. I had the same qualms as you, but couldn’t figure out how to remove the username via Sys Prefs or anything.
As if we need to be reminded what our names are all the time!! =)
Thanks, great tip:)
Thank you. Going back to search results to +1
Thank you! Now how do you get it back if you ever have a change of heart??!
Thanks, I am glad the post was helpful.
@bob: Sure, just place a check on the Login Options I am describing on the post.
Oh thanks for the tip. That username taking up space was annoying as hell.
Thanks heaps for this. I was really annoyed at display of my full name on the menubar.
thanks for help
Thanks for that! Never knew you could hit command to remove items in the menu bar.
Awesome!! I was really annoyed with this too!! Glad it’s gone now π
Thank you very much. You are a gentleman and scholar. I installed Lion on my machine while out of town here with a 3 hour time difference. This “feature” annoyed me instantly, but I was so tired that I didn’t have time to look past the first few places to turn this off.
Thanks for saving the day. I hope all those in need are able to find this thread via google/etc.
Great tip! Will share!!
thank you so much!!! that was my first biggest gripe.
Thanks. I really hated seeing that. And no option to get rid of it in system prefs. Wonder if it will one day be useful and then, how would I get it back? Nevermind. I’m really glad to see it gone.
Thanks! I hope they remove that feature in the next update.
Thanks. the same feeling as me
how do i put it back>?
Am I the only that when i turn on my imac it’s slower than before the upgrade to the new os x lion? Also, when i turn on my imac the wifi doesn’t catches it and its say’s no wifi hardware installed – so i restart my comp and only then does it come out… i’d appreciate your feedback (: thanks
Awesome, thanks!
Thanks .Wot a stupid idea to put the name up there. Why would you want that?
And don’t get me started on my stupid little face in a porthole on the login screen, what’s all that about? I’m going to have to have an abstract pattern for my profile pic now…!
Thank you very much!
Thanks for this great help!!!!
Thank you for the help!!!
Thank you so much! Got really bugged by that too…
thanks,like i don’t know it is me using the computer,such an unnecessary feature ,and no information on how to remove it, thanks!!!!
You made my day with this!
Thanks!!!!!
Big THANKS – you are a hero for this!
Perhaps not a feature needed by all, but if you have multiple accounts, this feature is slick. Switching between accounts is about 500% faster than going through the whole log out and log in process.
Ok lol
FAB FAB FAB
like getting rid of that big spot!!!
thanks
Great and really helpful,
Thanks!
Thanks for this.!
Thanks for that very helpful, now if only they’d sort out the quicktime problems since upgrading to lion or is it just me that it’s constantly pausing with since I upgraded?!?
Thanks! how do you get your name to re-appear ?
Not sure I will ever need to do that, but it is nice to know.
Also this option for deleting your name from the tool bar is good if you do screen casting and you dont want every person to know your RL name.
You can reenable it again by going into System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options and checking the βShow fast user switching menu asβ option. If the options are greyed out (and you are not able to modify them), just click the Lock icon at the bottom left corner, typer your password and you are ready to go.
Too Easy. Always the way with mac, you can spend ages looking for something and then when you find out, it’s like, “Yeah, that makes sense”. Nice one. Thanks!
HOORAY! Thanks for this info!
NOW – how about adding the month/date to the the Date/Time configuration??? I’ve changed it many times in the prefs but it never makes any difference – it remains the same in the menu bar (weekday/time).
Thanks!
Very helpful
Thank You
Thanks!
Perfect, thank you!
Me too! Nothing could be added or removed in my Lion menubar until I unchecked this feature. Drove me and several Support people a little nuts trying figure out why.
Thank you for taking the time to explain it, was searching for at least 15 minutes to figure it out. Internet to the rescue once again… π
I love you. Been staring at SysPrefs but managed to overlook this one little choice. Gawd bless ther innernet. x
BOOM! Thank you! I just upgraded and I hate it so far!! b/c of little things like that and the new Tweetdeck sucks! If you have any tips on that, it’d be awesome. For now, thanks me for making me smile! π
thanx i got to the second last step and that was as far as i could go. thanks for completing it for me
Many THANK!!!!!!!!!
Very annoying mac change!!! Thank you very much!!!
Hopefully this is ditched all together in Mountain Lion. It’s so unneeded and annoying.
Actually, i had the opposite problem. I wanted to have this feature, but I did not know how to do it. I followed your instructions in reverse order and now it is working. Thank you.
Thank you!
Thanks for useful tip!
Thank you so much! Been tryin to do that for a long time but couldn’t figure it out. Thanks for posting this info.
BIG THANKS! I LOVE YOUUUUUU TO THE FULLEST
Thanks buddy. This was on my agenda ever since I first saw mac.
Awesome – thanks!!
Thank you!
Thanks
OH MY GOD
I never knew there were so many people who would not know of this, yet be smart enough to use WordPress
And I’m not even talking about the swift CMD + drag out to delete. It even links to the system prefs. I hope someone nukes these comments, this seriously makes Mac users look like 5-year olds…
If you didn’t know of this, I challenge you to check out all the system preferences. Know your “computing box” at least that little.
after migrating my user data from a macbook to my new macbook pro, it resulted in an non-working email and lots of other issues. So I decided to start over, so I tried to delete the user account I had just created and chose the safe delete option. It has now taken more than 24hours for the user account to be deleted. the system preference/user&group won’t let me close it since it is still deleting the user account. What do I do? keep waiting? I seem to be able to do many other tasks on the computer except close the system preference… Any ideas?
Thanks dude, you’re awesome!
Thanks a lot!
Thank you!
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