MARCH 2020 MACWORLD 103Apple assures its
third-party developers in
fast user switching
documentation that
background accounts have
no keyboard or mouse
input, and apps that check
on screen activity will
receive a response as if
the screen were asleep.
That is a sort of guarantee
that any app or service
that’s running will reliably
keep running.
If you’re wondering if
it’s working in practice,
there’s a way you can
peep on switched
accounts without changing
the user on that Mac. If
Screen Sharing is enabled
for the account and you
make a remote connection
from another Mac using
that switched-away
account, you’ll be able to
create a virtual session and
interact with that account
even as another user is
working in the foreground.
This can slow things
down—sometimes
substantially—for that user, however, as the
background account has to generate all
To turn on fast user switching, you’ll need to access Users &
Groups in System Preferences.Next, click the lock, type in the Administrator password, and
click Login Options. You’ll be taken to this screen where you
can turn on fast user switching.the display information just as if it’s
working with a monitor. ■