3 ms·

Yes, I have been baffled that it was always so difficult for the user to manage what’s auto-launched on start-up. So many apps try to bury into start-up so they

Yes, I have been baffled that it was always so difficult for the user to manage what’s auto-launched on start-up. So many apps try to bury into start-up so they can keep collecting data and lightly spamming the user. Can anyone shed light on why it took so long? I had always figured the non-existence of a login items panel was a purposeful choice.

nvrspyx 4y ago
It's actually been there for a long time. It's a separate tab in "Users & Groups" pre-Ventura.
- yurishimo 4y ago
  Apps aren’t required to use that screen though. Some of them will, but a lot of apps not in the App Store can and do register themselves with launchd on their own. Apple should be proactive and extract those items automatically, but in practice, they don’t.
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    Launch agents and daemons didn't even show up there. It was more for the user themselves to register programs they wanted to auto open. However that feature became a bit stale since macOS started reopening all apps anyway.
- mrtesthah 4y ago
  No, the “Login Items” panel that was previously under Users & Groups did not include Launch Agents or Launch Daemons. Launch Daemons in particular are managed directly by launchd and can have more sophisticated triggers including periodic execution.
  - nvrspyx 4y ago
    I see. Thank you for the correction.
- Etheryte 4y ago
  This view only includes actual apps that launch on startup, it doesn't include agents, daemons etc. Many popular apps have one, if not many, that the users are usually not even aware of and can't turn off via the UI. To see what I mean, try running `launchctl list | grep -v "com.apple"` as the user you're logged in with. It will list jobs loaded into launchctl not owned by Apple, and that isn't even the only way to make things run at startup.
GekkePrutser 4y ago
Maybe because it was not a common feature in the market. In Windows for example it's even more of a mess because there's a ton of places for autostarting software to run from. There this excellent tool from sysinternals called autostarts but it's not an OS feature despite sysinternals now being owned by Microsoft. And in Linux? No great way of managing systemd via the GUI either afaik. And Apple has always been one for hiding technical complexity from the user. It's only that security became prio #1 that they're doing this. 2010 Apple would not have presented the user with these popups for example.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  PS: Why the 0 points? :) They even made fun of Vista's popups at that time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuqZ8AqmLPY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuqZ8AqmLPY Apple at that time really didn't care as much about security as they do now, it was before the fappening, before wannacry etc. They were more obscure as an OS so there was not as much malware. Security was not as much on the radar as it is now.

nvrspyx 4y ago

It's actually been there for a long time. It's a separate tab in "Users & Groups" pre-Ventura.

yurishimo 4y ago
Apps aren’t required to use that screen though. Some of them will, but a lot of apps not in the App Store can and do register themselves with launchd on their own. Apple should be proactive and extract those items automatically, but in practice, they don’t.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  Launch agents and daemons didn't even show up there. It was more for the user themselves to register programs they wanted to auto open. However that feature became a bit stale since macOS started reopening all apps anyway.
mrtesthah 4y ago
No, the “Login Items” panel that was previously under Users & Groups did not include Launch Agents or Launch Daemons. Launch Daemons in particular are managed directly by launchd and can have more sophisticated triggers including periodic execution.
- nvrspyx 4y ago
  I see. Thank you for the correction.
Etheryte 4y ago
This view only includes actual apps that launch on startup, it doesn't include agents, daemons etc. Many popular apps have one, if not many, that the users are usually not even aware of and can't turn off via the UI. To see what I mean, try running `launchctl list | grep -v "com.apple"` as the user you're logged in with. It will list jobs loaded into launchctl not owned by Apple, and that isn't even the only way to make things run at startup.

GekkePrutser 4y ago

Maybe because it was not a common feature in the market. In Windows for example it's even more of a mess because there's a ton of places for autostarting software to run from. There this excellent tool from sysinternals called autostarts but it's not an OS feature despite sysinternals now being owned by Microsoft. And in Linux? No great way of managing systemd via the GUI either afaik. And Apple has always been one for hiding technical complexity from the user. It's only that security became prio #1 that they're doing this. 2010 Apple would not have presented the user with these popups for example.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
PS: Why the 0 points? :) They even made fun of Vista's popups at that time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuqZ8AqmLPY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuqZ8AqmLPY Apple at that time really didn't care as much about security as they do now, it was before the fappening, before wannacry etc. They were more obscure as an OS so there was not as much malware. Security was not as much on the radar as it is now.