Login Screen (Unwanted Information)

Question

I read an article about how to display such items as the date and time on your login screen, and found it interesting so I tried it by typing: "defaults write /Library/Preferences/com/apple/loginwindow AdminHostInfo Time" into terminal, but I can't seem to figure out how to undo this. When I boot to the login screen, it now display the current date and time. (I wouldn't mind it displaying the date only, but the time is just annoying) Please help me go back to the default setting for this function.
iMac (Intel Core Duo)   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

Answer 1

Hi, Etown88.
You've learned two important lessons:
1. Undocumented features are undocumented for a reason.
2. Never try "tricks" you read in magazines or on the Web unless they also clearly specify how to undo the trick. In fact, you should skip tricks like this: review Lesson 1 above.
The specific "trick" you cite was in Macworld recently and can be found on their web site here and here, the latter under the heading "Make your login window informative".
You'll also note at the end of the second article that it contains a correction: sometimes tricks have typos that can really ruin your day.
The "trick" probably originated as a post on the Mac OS X Hints site since the column was written by Rob Griffiths who runs that site.
To "undo" this, simply specify HostName, which is the default:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo HostName
This is stated in the articles cited above, but one has to realize it as its stated subtly, e.g."• HostName to show the default display"Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X