obscure login icon

delis

Registered
Hello,


I was working on my mbpro 13 (late 11, Mavs). At some point i wanted to clean the keyboard keys from the "oily" marks my fingers left..so instead of shutting down, i locked the screen (from the lock icon on the menu bar). I picked a swiffer and wiped the entire keyboard several times..while doing that -as you can imagine- the password field was filled with mambo jumbo, the os rejected the pass whenever i (while cleaning) pressed "enter"; i cleared the password field and continued wiping (thus continued typing mambo jumbo). At some point my login icon replaced with one depicting three silhouettes (like "many/multiple users" thing?), my user name replaced with an, i guess, username field while the password field right under it. So my login screen was like that: The "3 guys" icon and 2 input fields (plus the normal symbols for "cancel" and "switch user")
Does anyone has any idea what that was? My mac has 2 accounts (one admin and one simple user that i normally login to; the quest account is disabled). The only relevant i could find is that: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3707709?tstart=0

Note: this is not a problem that needs to be solved, but more of an urge of mine to know what is..

thank you
 
There are many more characters in most fonts than your computer has keys to map them into. Most of those characters can be accessed by pressing sequences of multiple keys. It appears that your swiffer inadvertently pressed the correct sequence of keys to display the character(s) in your login dialog box.
 
There are many more characters in most fonts than your computer has keys to map them into. Most of those characters can be accessed by pressing sequences of multiple keys. It appears that your swiffer inadvertently pressed the correct sequence of keys to display the character(s) in your login dialog box.

Hello and thanx for the reply; but, unfortunately, it seems there is a misunderstanding here. Maybe i didn't described the whole thing well.
The "problem"/icon i refered to was not a typo one, but rather a new kind of login account that came up after those random keystrokes..I mean my account icon&username were replaced by an unknown account (blank username field) whose icon (or user picture if you prefer) was depicting three silhouettes (like "many/multiple users" thing?)/3 guys...
 
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OK

You did say that it's a question that doesn't need to be solved - so - does that mean that you can simply restart, and there's no problem?

If there's garbage characters in the login screen, then you could just select those, and replace with whatever you need.

If, rather, the login has REALLY been changed (modifying your own user account), then you should be able to check that in the Users & Groups pref pane.
And, finally, you could delete the login prefs, in /Library/Preferences folder. Delete the file: loginwindow.plist
Delete the same file (loginwindow.plist) from ~/Library/Preferences.
Likely that you somehow corrupted the login window settings, and deleting those files will reset the window to defaults.
Then, restart your Mac.
 
No..no problem to be solved..i just clicked on cancel (x) botton at the bottom of the login screen, mac went in "lock screen" mode again, then hitted a key/mouse bottom to bring again the login screen, i typed my pass and logged...i am just curious what kind of account came up after those random keystrokes (while i was cleaning). I think is kind of hidden feature of os x (a wheel group account? a network account?) but i dont really know what is, that's why i am posting here..to find out...No other accounts on Accounts pref pane except my two accounts i've created when i bought the macbook...

ok lets take everything from the start and i hope u can follow (you can do the steps i'll describe to have an idea of what i mean)...
You are logged in and working on your mac..then you click on the lock icon(keychain) on the menu bar and choose "lock screen" (lets say you have to go to make a cup of coffee and u don't want anyone to use your mac while ur away)..while on lock screen mode your mac goes to a kind of sleep mode and waits a keystroke to wake up. When that happens (the keystroke/mouse click), the login screen is coming up. That is: your account pict, your account username, the (empty) password field, and two buttons down the screen: 1) "cancel" (x) that sends mac to "lock screen" mode again, and 2) a "switch account"(if there is more than one account on the mac) button..thats it...NOW imagine that you type mumbo jumbo in your account password field and your account picture is replaced with the "3guys" pict, there is an empty username field where your username was, and an empty password field +the 2 buttons (cancel/switch acount). At that point i clicked "cancel", then hit a key and the login screen came up as always...

in my first post i wrote:"...My mac has 2 accounts (one admin and one simple user that i normally login to; the quest account is disabled). The only relevant i could find is that: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3707709?tstart=0 "

did you checked that link? it may help you understand

thank you for your replies
 
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