up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

When I boot my Mac, I have some programs that start up automatically. Where can I see the list of these programs to disable some?

link|improve this question
88% accept rate
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Login items

Most of those can be found under

System Preferences - Accounts - Login Items

Unlock the preferences (left bottom corner) and remove them by pressing the small - button.

enter image description here

Launch Agents

Developers should place their apps into the Login items. OS X also has launchd which can launch agents. So basically these are things that are also loaded when the system starts. 

~/Library/LaunchAgents         Per-user agents provided by the user.
/Library/LaunchAgents          Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
/System/Library/LaunchAgents   Mac OS X Per-user agents.

You shouldn't mess with those on a normal basis, because removing something might render your system unstable. But at one time I installed something that only could be removed by deleting it from my LaunchAgents folder.

link|improve this answer
Thank you, the offending software was in LaunchAgents. – user16145 May 10 '11 at 9:53
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

Go to system preferences / accounts / your account and then click the 'logon items' tab. Those are the application that run automatically when you log on.

link|improve this answer
2  
You might also need to click the padlock icon at the bottom-left corner if it is locked. – harrymc May 10 '11 at 9:10
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.