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How to make any MacOS app start at login – to save you time and clicks
Out of the gate, MacOS is one of the most efficient operating systems on the market. One feature makes Apple’s OS even more efficient by giving users some extra power to customize the computing experience to their needs. Let’s talk about a little thing called Login Items.
When you add an app as a Login Item, that app will always automatically start as soon as you log in to the desktop. To some, that may not sound like much. After all, it only takes a couple of clicks to launch an app, right?
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But what if you’re constantly on the go and, for whatever reason, have to regularly power off your laptop? When you log back in, you have to restart all the apps you were using. That’s not terribly efficient.
There’s another reason why you should know about this feature. On several occasions, I’ve encountered apps that somehow magically (and without my help) configure themselves to open at login. Recently, I found that iTerm, Arc, Spotify, Finder, Apple Mail, and Bitwarden were all automatically opening upon login. That had to stop!
I want to show you how easy it is to add (and remove) apps so that they start upon login (or not, as the case may be). Although this isn’t a game-changer, knowing how to remove apps from startup might also help you if you happen to have pesky apps that you don’t need to open right away.
How to configure apps to start at login with MacOS
Let’s get into it.
Requirements
The only thing you’ll need is a device running MacOS, so a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or iMac will do just fine. I’ll be demonstrating on MacOS Ventura v13.0. If you’re using an older version of the operating system, the location of the Login Items will be different. The good thing is that MacOS makes it pretty easy to find these things.
With that said, it’s time to add an application or two to the login.
The first thing to do is log in to your MacOS device. Once you’ve logged in, click the Apple menu button in the top left corner of the desktop and click System Settings.
Within the System Settings app, type Login Items in the search, which should reveal the Login Items entry. Click that entry to open it.
Locating Login Items in System Preferences.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
I have both Google Drive and mInstaller running at log in.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
From there, you can select any installed application you want to add and then click Open. This will add the new application to the Login Items list. You can then click + to add another. Keep doing this until you have all the apps you want added.
All of your installed apps should appear here.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Removing apps from the Login Items list
If you decide you no longer want an app to start at login, or you’ve found some rogue apps configured their own way to Login Items, removing them is easy. Just go back to Login Items, select the app you want to remove, and click – (the minus sign). I find myself having to do this regularly because I generally like to start with a clean slate. There are, however, apps that I do need to start upon logging in, such as Bartender and Alfred. Those apps I will leave configured, and remove everything else.
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That’s all there is to adding apps that automatically start as soon as you log in to your MacOS device.
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