Make Mavericks Re-run the Setup Assistant

Updating my old blog post, Make OS X re-run the initial Setup Assistant, Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks (and perhaps even earlier versions, back to 10.5) require a slightly different method, since the NetInfo Manager has now been done away with. Thanks to this comment on Mac OS X Hints for the updated information.

1. Boot into single-user mode (hold ⌘-S during startup)
2. Once the command-line prompt appears, type the following:
3. mount -uw /
4. rm -R /Library/Preferences/
5. rm -R /Users/your username/
6. cd /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default
7. ls to list the files
8. Delete the file that is named after your user account, with a .plist extension. So, for user name "tempadmin", type rm tempadmin.plist
9. rm /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone
10. reboot
11. Mac OS X will restart and the setup assistant will launch automatically.

If you’re doing this to get the Mac ready for a new owner, just press ⌘-Q once the opening animation finishes, and click Shut Down. The Setup Assistant will automatically run again the next time the Mac is started.