How to Control Which Apps Launch When You Start Your Mac
For app developers, running their software on macOS has many benefits: it means the program is available at any time, can perform background tasks (like updates) while you’re doing something else), and can send you a notification or two whenever he wants.
To some extent, this is normal – for the applications that you really need and use most of the time. But when too many of these apps automatically launch with macOS, you’ll start to notice an impact on performance. You don’t necessarily need a bunch of programs running in memory all the time.
Just like in Windows , you have full control over which apps run on macOS: you can add your favorites and remove programs you use less often (of course, you can still launch them the normal way as and when needed). . It’s also worth checking this list regularly to check for software that has sneaked in without your knowledge.
Before you begin, you might want to know what’s currently running in your Mac’s memory and what’s using up your computer’s precious system resources. Launch Activity Monitor from Spotlight or the Utilities panel in Finder to get this information—you can close any process by selecting it and then clicking the X in the toolbar.
Individual application settings
It’s a good idea to check the settings within individual apps first: this may take longer than loading the macOS system settings, but it will avoid any potential conflict between programs that think they’re allowed to boot with macOS and an operating system that doesn’t. I don’t want them to do this.
This setting will be in different places in different programs, but you should be able to find it without any problems if it is there. For example, in the Spotify desktop app for macOS, click on your profile picture (top right) and Settings , and you’ll see a drop-down menu that says “Open Spotify automatically” once you sign in to your computer .
Many apps that run with macOS take up space in the menu bar, which can be a good place to look for settings to disable them. Let’s take Dropbox as an example: right-click the icon in the menu bar, select Settings , and under the General tab a toggle switch will appear that says ” Open Dropbox on startup ” (you’ll see that each app names it differently).
General macOS settings
Once you’ve completed all the individual software settings you can find, open the Apple menu, then System Preferences . On the General tab, select Login Items and Extensions . The next screen shows everything that runs with macOS and all the processes that are allowed to run in the background (even if the apps they’re associated with aren’t running).
Removing an item from the entry list is as simple as selecting it and then clicking the – (minus) symbol – it will disappear without any additional effort. To add something to this list so that the program is always available to you on macOS, click the + (plus) button, then find and select the application on your system.
Later in the same dialog, you can also disable some background processes running with macOS if necessary: these are usually tools to check for updates for the relevant applications. However, ideally you want to find the settings for these apps within the apps themselves, as playing with the toggles here can sometimes cause the software to behave incorrectly.