Hiding applications

[zoran]

On an iMac with 2 drives (HD and SSD) and two OS's on each drive, i want to know if it is possible to hide the applications that are used in each OS?
The iMac, can boot in either the HD or the SSD (ElCapitan and Yosemite) but i dont want each user to know what applications are installed and used by the other OS that is installed on the other drive... is this possible?

 

[Weaselboy]

You could setup another account with parental controls to control what is available for use as far as apps, but you would still be able to see the apps are there in the Applications folder.

 

[zoran]

Is it possible, when having dual boot, to disallow the appearance of the other drive, thats used for booting?

 

[Weaselboy]

Is it possible, when having dual boot, to disallow the appearance of the other drive, thats used for booting?

I can't think of a good way to do that. You might be able to enable FileVault on both drives, but I have never tested that in a dual boot setup.

 

[zoran]

Whats the feature that FileVault has, that will allow it to do this?

 

[Weaselboy]

Whats the feature that FileVault has, that will allow it to do this?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204837

FileVault encrypts the whole boot drive, so when you are booted to one drive, the other would not be visible since it is encrypted. I'm just not sure without testing if that will work in a dual boot setup.

 

[zoran]

So with FileVault data is encrypted but also a selected drive cannot be seen at all?

 

[Weaselboy]

So with FileVault data is encrypted but also a selected drive cannot be seen at all?

You can see the second, encrypted drive in Disk Utility, but without entering the password, nobody can see any data or apps on it.

For example, the Other volume here is encrypted but not mounted. I can right click and mount it then enter password to access it.

 

[zoran]

1. The encrypted drive can only be seen in Disk Utility, nowhere else?
2. Your thoughts with filevault are what happens when a possible encrypted drive is a bootable one. And maybe when trying to boot its invisible... is that what ur worried about?

 

[Weaselboy]

1. As long as it is unmounted, you will only see it in Disk Util.

2. When you turn on FV, it reconfigures the boot process so that you actually boot to a small recovery volume on the drive. Then it prompts you for the password to unlock the drive. I just have not tested if that process will work with two boot drives switching back and forth.