Reorder applications and other login items on OS X

Question

How can I reorder aplications and other login items on OS X 10.6 since System Preferences doesn't give us that power.

Answer 1

You can in fact reorder Login Items in Accounts.prefPane. The only insertion point is at the very bottom, so you need to drag the items in the desired order, since all share the same destination. Begin dragging by moving the pointer horizontally, then vertically, otherwise it becomes a multiple selection.

Example:

• App 1
• App 2
• App 3
• App 4

Now drag App 2 anywhere in the list, insertion marker is at the bottom.

• App 1
• App 3
• App 4
• App 2

Now drag App 3 anywhere in the list, insertion marker is at the bottom.

• App 1
• App 4
• App 2
• App 3

Answer 2

I believe that all items in Login Items are launched simultaneously, at least in 10.4 & 10.5 (I run PPC so I don't know about 10.6). What I did to get items to launch in the order I want, and to pause inbetween so as to prevent locking up when all items launch at once, was to write an AppleScript in Script Editor which looks like this:

delay 5
tell application "ABC"
launch
end tell
delay 3
tell application "123"
launch
end tell
delay 3
tell application "XYZ"
launch
end tell

And then put the script in Login Items. Delays are in seconds.