Hide username from menu bar

Question

In Mountain Lion, my full name is displayed at the right of the menu bar (between the time and the search icon, to be specific). As it takes a lot of space, I was wondering if there is a way to hide this?

It's not, but when I upgraded my MBA to Mountain Lion, OS X turned on fast user switching and the corresponding menu bar extra for me. No idea why it did that; I've never had fast user switching enabled on this laptop, and it only has one user account, so it doesn't even make sense for to be on. — Warren Pena, Jul 27 '12 at 05:18
I didn't know it wasn't specific to 10.8, but I only noticed it after the upgrade. — Stijn.V, Jul 27 '12 at 11:20

score 57 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 26 '16 at 04:03

57

Open System Preferences
Select User & Groups
Select Login Options (not Login Items)
(Click the lock to make changes at the lower left corner of the window)
Uncheck "Show fast user switching menu as ...

edited Oct 26 '16 at 04:03

Sridhar Ratnakumar

161

answered Jul 26 '12 at 18:47

bassplayer7

14,106

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 26 '12 at 19:21

19

You just have to press the Command key while dragging the username out of the menu bar like you would to remove a dock item.

edited Jul 26 '12 at 19:21

Cajunluke

17,704

answered Jul 26 '12 at 18:47

Philippe Gilbert

504

1

Thanks, this worked even when the accepted method didn't. – ShreevatsaR May 17 '15 at 22:15

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:08

11

This is the fast user switching menu, which can be Command + dragged off.

Further settings can be accessed through the users & groups pref pane:

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answered Jul 26 '12 at 19:08

Alexander

8,363

Hide username from menu bar

3 Answers3