On some fresh OS X installations, you’ll find the user name or login appears in the upper right corner of the menu bar, even if there is only one user account on the Mac. This is actually a feature called Fast User Switching, and the name likely appears in the menu bar due to the Guest Login ability (which can be disabled separately).
Nonetheless, not all users want their user name or full name appearing in the corner of the Mac OS X menu bar. If you’re looking hide it, here is how to remove the name:
- Open “System Preferences” from the Apple menu
- Click on “Users & Groups”
- Click on the Lock icon in the lower corner and enter the admin password
- Click on “Login Options”
- Uncheck the box next to “Show fast user switching menu as:”
- Close out of System Preferences
Alternatively, pulling down the contextual menu next to “Show fast user switching menu” gives you the option to reduce the name to either just the short name or to a simple icon.
Unchecking the box makes the name disappear from the menu bar immediately. This does not impact the ability to login with other users on the account though.
As to why this doesn’t show up on all Mac OS X machines, it’s likely to be enabled on fresh Mac OS X installations or re-installations, whether clean installs or updates.
Update: Apparently you can also remove the user name from the menu bar by holding down the command key and dragging it out of the menu, much like any other menu item. Thanks to @martin for that tip.
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