Chromebooks are a great choice for students and busy professionals who want to use a laptop without having to worry about multiple users. However, if you’re someone who likes to work with others, you may find it difficult to switch between users on a Chromebook. Here’s how to do it:
- Log in to your Chromebook and open the settings menu.
- Under “Users,” select “New User.”
- Enter your name and password, and click “Create.”
- In the new user’s account settings, you’ll need to set up two different passwords: one for your primary user account and one for your secondary user account. You can also set up different preferences for each user account, such as whether they can access the same files or not. After you’ve created both accounts, log out of both accounts and log back in to your Chromebook using the primary user’s password.
If you don’t have multiple users already, go ahead and add a new person to your Chromebook like you normally would. You can do that by simply signing out of your existing account (using Ctrl+Shift+Q) and selecting the “Add Person” option on the bottom of the lock screen.
RELATED: How to Manage Multiple User Accounts on a Single Chromebook
From any of the user accounts, click the status area that shows the Chromebook’s Wi-Fi and battery levels from the bottom-right corner.
In the Quick Settings panel, select your profile image’s thumbnail.
Now, click the “Sign in another user” button. Select the “OK” option in the following warning prompt.
On the next screen, log in to your other Chromebook account.
Both your accounts are now eligible for the instant switch option, which means you won’t need to enter a passcode to go back and forth between them.
You can repeat this process for as many user accounts as you want to.
To use the instant switch feature, click the status area again and, from under the display picture menu, simply select an account you want to sign in to.
Your Chromebook will automatically authenticate you and take you to that account without asking for the passcode. This especially comes in handy when you keep separate profiles for your work and your personal life on your Chromebook.
You can also do this with a keyboard shortcut. Press Ctrl+Alt+the period key to go to the next user and Ctrl+Alt+the comma key to go back to the previous one.
Chrome OS offers several more hidden perks that you may not know about, like a task manager and loads of keyboard shortcuts.
RELATED: Master Chrome OS With These Chromebook Keyboard Shortcuts
