Examine the /var/root/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow file

From this Apple article, I want to examine this /var/root/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow file. Any suggestion how to do this?

3 Answers

In terminal

# sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook

You can easily navigate to the directory in question ("/var/root/Library/Preferences/") from your terminal by first using: sudo su root (you will be prompted for your password by the sudo command).

While the cut and paste answer derived from the article you read is correct.. it is there in that document you read, it doesn't show you the specific file you're after. If you want to actually assign a start-up script, one (though much more technical doc about this you might have a look at is: Apple Developer's Documentation on System Start-up Daemon's and Services, which makes the very important provision for the sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook command:

Note: If no plist file exists for com.apple.loginwindow, this method will not work. This file (/var/root/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist) does not exist on a fresh installation until the user changes a login window setting (such as turning on fast user switching).

So, you should first have a look and see if that file exists on your machine, if not, that my be part of your problem. You can do this as stated above by creating or using your "root" user, to see whether or not you have the required "plist" file from above.

You can check to see the status of com.apple.loginwindow using: defaults read com.apple.loginwindow --note that you may need to proceed that with "sudo".

If the above information does not help, I think giving some more specific information on what you've tried, and the results you've gotten would help further narrowing things down for you.

Hope this helped.

1. ctrl-escape (or cmd-escape) to run spotlight.
2. Type console
3. Search for loginwindow