Set a User Agreement Policy to Appear Before Login in Mac OS X Lion

Jan 18, 2012 - 22 Comments

User Agreement on Login in Mac OS X Lion

Mac OS X Lion can display messages that require acknowledgement prior to the standard login screen appearing. For administrators, this allows a user agreement or acceptable use policy to be displayed before users can login, and for personal use it lets users include a customized message before logging into a Mac.

How to Create & Set a Login User Agreement in Mac OS X

For OS X 10.7 or later:

  • Open TextEdit and create an RTF containing the the user agreement login message, save this file named as “PolicyBanner” and be sure the extension is .rtf or .rtfd
  • From the Finder, hit Command+Shift+G to bring up the “Go To Folder” window and enter the following path:
  • /Library/Security/

  • Copy the previously created PolicyBanner.rtf to the /Library/Security/ folder
  • PolicyBanner

  • Authenticate the file transfer by entering the administrators password

Note: /Library/ is different than the user ~/Library/, with the former being system-wide and the latter being user specific.

To confirm the policy banner is active, log out and log back into the Mac. The user agreement will popup before the standard login screen, and must be accepted before a user can login to the Mac.

User Agreement on Login in Mac OS X Lion

Clicking “Accept” will return the standard login screen:

OS X Lion login

To further customize the Mac login process, add a message to the OS X Lion login screen itself or change the login wallpaper to something other than the default linen.

Related articles:

Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Customize, Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks

22 Comments

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  1. atasay says:

    i didn’t found policy banner docs in library.
    i checked users library security docs and system hdd>library>i didnt see security docs

    i am using 10.7.2 lion

  2. Tante X says:

    you have to create sutch a document and copy it into the
    /Library/Secuiyty folder

  3. Ben says:

    Where can I find that wallpaper?

  4. MallardShark says:

    How’d you get the images into the user agreement?

  5. HKMacs says:

    Will this work with FileVault II?

  6. HKMacs says:

    Yes it works but appears after login just before the Desktop appears.

  7. atasay says:

    i created policebanner files on textedit. i wrote some sentences. (Extensions is rtf)
    after that

    Copy the previously created PolicyBanner.rtf to the /Library/Security/ folder but it didnt appear

  8. atasay says:

    ok ok i solved the problem. it works :)

  9. B.R. says:

    Do they have it for windows xp and 7

  10. Lee says:

    Works perfectly, absolutely brilliant

  11. iEd says:

    It doesn’t work for me, I followed everything.

  12. iEd says:

    Ok solved it,I made a mistake,should put it in the security folder not in security agents plugins folder

  13. Maz says:

    it didn’t work for me, i tried everything you said..and check it, but nothing at all..

    i have Mac OS X 10.7.2!!!!

    thanks

  14. Broojo says:

    Just did it and it works fine :) Mac OS X 10.7.2 (havent bothered upgrading to .3 yet)

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