I have a number of (background) programs that startup automatically on login even though they have been disabled (unchecked) on the Login Items pane of the Users & Groups System Preferences. Examples include DropBox, ChronoSync Backgrounder, and Boingo.
Q: How can I disable/control these login items that don't respond to the systems preferences settings?
Related sub-questions:
- Why do the checkboxes in the login items list not work?
- What are all of the places that non-system startup items can be found/controlled?
Current system configuration: MacBook (13in Aluminum, Late 2008), Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50), But this problem existed on Snow Leopard before upgrading to Lion.
Best Answer
The checkboxes are not for disabling the application launch, but if checked, the application gets hidden as if you were pressing CMD+H. To disable it, select it in the list and click on the Minus-button beneath that list. By that you remove them. You can't just disable them with OS X tools.
To see a summary of all LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons you can use a software like Lingon or you can have a look at
/Library/LaunchDaemons,/Library/LaunchAgents,/System/Library/LaunchAgents, and/System/Library/LaunchDaemonsas well as~/Library/LaunchDaemons,~/Library/LaunchAgents,~/Library/StartupItems, and/Library/StartupItems.