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• Remove Mac Startup Items
• Mac Startup Items Library Hours
• Mac Startup Items Library Hours
• Mac Startup Items Library Download

What are startup items?

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2. Sep 02, 2017 Adding Startup Scripts to Launch Daemon on Mac OS X Sierra 10.12.6. How things work on Mac compared to that on Linux — to be completely honest it has been a painstaking journey while wrapping.

Nov 14, 2018  There are two locations to store the startup items configuration file: /Library/StartupItems and /System/Library/StartupItems. Most of the macOS-related StartupItems are placed in the /System/Library/StartupItems directory, which provides system-level basic services. Such as crash report, core graphics services, system account management.

Startup items, or login items, are services and applications that launch every time you start your Mac. These are applications that sneak into startup items without notice, never asking if you need or want them there. This way you may end up with a dozen apps launching as soon as you turn on your Mac, weighing heavily on its processor and memory capacities and slowing it down. Such items can increase your Mac’s startup time and decrease its performance.

Plus, sometimes when you remove an application or a service, it leaves a login item with a broken link. These broken login items are completely useless, cause unwanted messages, and waste your Mac's resources (because they look for non-existent applications). Whether you're running macOS Catalina or El Capitan, or earlier — it's all the same, so just read on.

So, let's go over how to take control of login items, and how to get rid of unwanted, broken or hidden startup items.

How to disable startup programs?

Do you want to stop programs from running at startup? There’s an easy way to remove programs from startup and get your Mac to load faster on launch. The fastest way to turn off startup items on Mac is an app like CleanMyMac X.

1. Download CleanMyMac for free.
2. Launch the app.
3. Open Optimization tab.
4. Click on Login items.
5. From the list of apps, disable the ones you don’t need on startup.
6. Done!

How to change startup programs manually?

Disabling Mac startup programs is possible manually. Therefore, if you have some time and would like to do it yourself, follow the steps below.

Your login items are listed in settings. One of the easiest ways to control startup items is inside System Preferences > Users & Groups.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Go to Users & Groups.
3. Choose your nickname on the left.
4. Choose Login items tab.
5. Check startup programs you want to remove.
6. Press the “–” sign below.
7. You’re done.
8. If you need to add an item back, press “+” and choose the app you’d like add.
9. Then restart your Mac to see the changes.

How to fix broken startup items?

Broken Mac startup files are left there because some part of apps are left on your Mac long after you’ve moved the app to the Trash. To get rid of these parts and to fix your startup, you’re going to need CleanMyMac again. First, you need to check if they’re among startup items and disable them if so. You can do it following the instructions above. Then you need to remove app leftovers. CleanMyMac works fine on macOS High Sierra and earlier OS.

1. Launch CleanMyMac.
2. Choose Uninstaller tab.
3. Scroll through the list of apps.
4. If you spot any app that you’ve deleted, check them.
5. Delete the app leftovers you’ve chosen.

You can also find and remove broken login items with the help of System Junk module:

1. Choose System Junk tab.
2. Click Scan.
3. Review details and click Clean.

Finally, you need to clean your macOS startup items through launch services:

1. Open Maintenance tab.
2. Choose Rebuild Launch Services.
3. Hit Run.
4. Done.

Once you do it, all broken app data on your Mac will be fixed.

Remove daemons and agents from startup process

If speaking of files, first go to the system folder /Library/StartUpItems. Here you’ll find all the startup files that are being launched with the system. You can delete the login item you think is necessary if you’re totally sure what you are doing.

Also, the /Library/LaunchDaemons folder contains a bunch of preference files that define how the application that is being launched along with the system should work. You might want to delete some of these files as well if you know you don’t need them and removing them is safe.

The /Library/LaunchAgents contains preference files responsible for the apps that launch during the login process (not the startup).

The above-mentioned folders contain app-related files. However, you can also check system folders to review whether you need some of the system applications to be running on startup:

1. /System/Library/LaunchDaemons - note that besides preference files this folder contains other important system items that are recommended to keep untouched.
2. /System/Library/LaunchAgents - most probably, you won’t also find anything worth removing in this folder, however, keeping this location in mind might help you find files related to a problematic app that causes troubles on Mac startup. If you have a problematic application that messes about on login, you can try to trace it back from this folder.

But, if you’re looking for simple ways to remove login items, we suggest using a professional Mac utility. Download CleanMyMac X for free and make unwanted and broken login items a thing of the past.

These might also interest you:

Deprecation Note: Startup items are a deprecated technology. Launching of daemons through this process may be removed or eliminated in a future release of OS X.

Unless your software requires compatibility with OS X v10.3 or earlier, use the launchd facility instead. For more information, see Creating Launch Daemons and Agents.

A startup item is a specialized bundle whose code is executed during the final phase of the boot process, and at other predetermined times (see Managing Startup Items). The startup item typically contains a shell script or other executable file along with configuration information used by the system to determine the execution order for all startup items.

The /System/Library/StartupItems directory is reserved for startup items that ship with OS X. All other startup items should be placed in the /Library/StartupItems directory. Note that this directory does not exist by default and may need to be created during installation of the startup item.

Anatomy of a Startup Item

Unlike many other bundled structures, a startup item does not appear as an opaque file in the Finder. A startup item is a directory whose executable and configuration property list reside in the top-level directory. The name of the startup item executable must match the name of the startup item itself. The name of the configuration property list is always StartupParameters.plist. Depending on your needs, you may also include other files in your startup item bundle directory.

To create your startup item:

1. Create the startup item directory. The directory name should correspond to the behavior you’re providing.

   Example: MyDBServer

2. Add your executable to the directory. The name of your executable should be exactly the same as the directory name. For more information, see Creating the Startup Item Executable.

3. Create a property list with the name StartupParameters.plist and add it to the directory. For information on the keys to include in this property list, see Specifying the Startup Item Properties .

   Example: MyDBServer/StartupParameters.plist

4. Create an installer to place your startup item in the /Library/StartupItems directory of the target system. (Your installer may need to create this directory first.)

   Your installer script should set the permissions of the startup item directory to prevent non-root users from modifying the startup item or its contents. For more information, see Startup Item Permissions.

Important: A startup item is not an application. You cannot display windows or do anything else that you can’t do while logged in via ssh. If you want to launch an application after login, you should install a login item instead. For more information, see Adding Login Items.

Creating the Startup Item Executable

The startup item executable can be a binary executable file or an executable shell script. Shell scripts are more commonly used because they are easier to create and modify.

If you are implementing your startup item executable as a shell script, OS X provides some code to simplify the process of creating your script. The file /etc/rc.common defines routines for processing command-line arguments and for gathering system settings. In your shell script, source the rc.common file and call the RunService routine, passing it the first command-line argument, as shown in the following example:

The RunService routine looks for StartService, StopService, and RestartService functions in your shell script and calls them to start, stop, or restart your services as needed. You must provide implementations for all three routines, although the implementations can be empty for routines whose commands your service does not support.

If your startup-item executable contains code that might take a long time to finish, consider spawning off a background process to run that code. Performing lengthy startup tasks directly from your scripts delays system startup. Your startup item script should execute as quickly as possible and then exit.

Remove Mac Startup Items

For more information about writing shell scripts, see Shell Scripting Primer.

Note: Most Apple-provided startup items have a test in the script to check to see if a particular variable is set to prevent automatic starting of daemons unless they are enabled (usually in the System Preference sharing pane).

To enable or disable a daemon that does not have a GUI checkbox, you must add or modify these variables directly by editing the file /etc/hostconfig. Note that this file is writable only by the root user, so this technique is discouraged. (Use a launchd daemon instead, if at all possible.)

Specifying the Startup Item Properties

The configuration property list of a startup item provides descriptive information about the startup item, lists the services it provides, and lists its dependencies on other services. OS X uses the service and dependency information to determine the launch order for startup items. This property list is stored in ASCII format (as opposed to XML) and can be created using the Property List Editor application.

Note: In OS X v10.4 and later, the dependency information for many stubbed-out system startup items is still present in case other startup items depend on it.

Table A-1 lists the key-value pairs you can include in your startup item’s StartupParameters.plist file. Each of the listed arrays contains string values. You can use the Property List Editor application that comes with the Xcode Tools to create this property list. When saving your property-list file, be sure to save it as an ASCII property-list file.

For example, here is an old-style plist:

And here is an XML plist example:

The service names you specify in the Requires and Uses arrays may not always correspond directly to the name of the startup item that provides that service. The Provides property specifies the actual name of the service provided by a startup item, and while this name usually matches the name of the startup item, it is not required to do so. For example, if the startup item launches multiple services, only one of those services can have the same name as the startup item.

If two startup items provide a service with the same name, the system runs only the first startup item it finds with that name. This is one of the reasons why your own startup items should launch only one service. If the name of only one of the services matches the name of another service, the entire startup item might not be executed and neither service would be launched.

The values of the Requires and Uses keys do not guarantee a particular launch order.

In OS X v10.4 and later, most low-level services are started with launchd. By the time your startup item starts executing, launchd is running, and any attempt to access any of the services provided by a launchd daemon will result in that daemon starting. Thus, you can safely assume (or at least pretend) that any of these services are running by the time your startup item is called.

For this reason, with few exceptions, the Requires and Uses keys are largely irrelevant after OS X v10.3 except to support service dependencies between two or more third-party startup items.

Managing Startup Items

During the boot process, the system launches the available startup items, passing a start argument to the startup item executable. After the boot process, the system may run the startup item executable again, this time passing it a restart or stop argument. Your startup item executable should check the supplied argument and act accordingly to start, restart, or stop the corresponding services.

Note: In general, with the exception of daemons provided with OS X, the system will only run your startup script with start or stop arguments (at boot and shutdown, respectively). Users, however, may elect to use the restart argument.

You should not make any assumptions about the order in which daemons will be shut down.

Mac Startup Items Library Hours

If you want to start, restart, or stop startup items from your own scripts, you can do so using the SystemStarter program. To use SystemStarter, you must execute it with two parameters: the desired action and the name of the service provided by the startup item. For example, to restart the Apache Web server (prior to OS X v10.4), you would execute the following command:

Important: You must have root authority to start, restart, or stop startup items.

Startup items should always respect the arguments passed in by SystemStarter. However, the response to those arguments is dependent on the startup item. The stop and restart options may not make sense in all cases. Your startup item could also support the restart option using the existing code for stopping and starting its service.

Displaying and Localizing a Startup Message

When your startup item starts at boot time, you may (if desired) display a message to the user. To do this, use the ConsoleMessage command. (You can use this command even if the computer is not starting up, but the user will not see it unless the Console application is running.)

For example:

If you want to localize the message displayed when a startup item starts, you must create a series of property list files with localized versions of the strings. Each of these files must be named Localizable.strings, and must be in a localized project directory whose name is based on the name of a language or locale code for the desired language. These folders, in turn, must be in a folder called Resources in the startup item folder.

For example, you might create a tree structure that looks like this:

Within each of these localizable strings files, you must include a dictionary whose keys map an English string to a string in another language. For example, the French version of the PrintingServices localization file looks like this:

Whenever the ConsoleMessage command is passed the string “Starting printing services”, if the user’s language preference is French, the user will instead see “Démarrage des services d’impression” at startup. C’est très bien!

The value of the key field must precisely match the English string printed by your startup item using ConsoleMessage.

See the manual page for locale for more information about locale codes.

Mac Startup Items Library Hours

Startup Item Permissions

Because startup items run with root authority, you must make sure your startup item directory permissions are set correctly. For security reasons, your startup item directory should be owned by root, the group should be set to wheel, and the permissions for the directory should be 755 (rwxr-xr-x). This means that only the root user can modify the directory contents; other users can examine the directory and view its contents, but cannot modify them. The files inside the directory should have similar permissions and ownership. Thus, the file listing for the Apache startup item directory is as follows:

Important: In OS X version 10.4 and later, the system asks the user what to do about startup items with incorrect permissions. At this point, the user may choose to disable the startup item, which could have unexpected results for your software. To avoid this, be sure to set the permissions during installation.

Mac Startup Items Library Download

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