Every app on your Mac that launches itself at startup got permission to do it somewhere — and macOS now puts almost all of those switches in one place. This guide shows you exactly where that place is, the three other spots apps hide, and how to deal with the stubborn ones that come back anyway. Five minutes of cleanup here is the single highest-impact speed fix on most Macs.
The main switch: Login Items & Extensions
On macOS Ventura, Sonoma, Sequoia, and newer:
- Open System Settings (Apple menu, top-left).
- Click General in the sidebar.
- Click Login Items & Extensions.
You will see two lists, and they are not the same thing:
- Open at Login — apps that visibly launch when you sign in. Select an app and click the minus (−) button to remove it. This does not uninstall anything; the app just stops auto-launching.
- Allow in the Background — helpers, updaters, and services that run invisibly. Flip the toggle off for anything you do not recognize as essential. Printer utilities, update checkers for apps you rarely open, and helper daemons from long-deleted software all live here.
Be ruthless with the first list. Almost nothing needs to open at login — cloud storage (iCloud Drive is built in, but Dropbox and Google Drive are not) and any menu-bar utility you genuinely use all day are the usual keepers. Everything else can launch when you actually click it.
Three other places apps get startup permission
1. The Dock
Right-click (or Control-click) any app icon in the Dock, hover over Options, and uncheck Open at Login if it is ticked. This is the most common way an app got there in the first place — one accidental click months ago.
2. The app’s own settings
Spotify, Slack, Discord, Steam, Zoom, and most chat and game apps have their own “launch at startup” checkbox inside their preferences. Some of them re-add themselves to Login Items every update if their internal setting stays on — so if an app keeps coming back after you remove it, open the app and switch it off at the source.
3. Reopened windows (not startup apps at all)
If your Mac reopens yesterday’s Safari windows and documents after a restart, that is a different feature. When you choose Restart or Shut Down, uncheck “Reopen windows when logging back in” in the confirmation dialog. macOS remembers the choice for next time.
Stubborn apps: launch agents and daemons
A small number of apps — usually antivirus tools, VPNs, printer drivers, and audio software — install launch agents that do not appear in the Open at Login list. On modern macOS most of them do show up under Allow in the Background, which is the safe way to disable them.
If something still launches with no visible switch, the files live in these folders (open Finder, press Cmd-Shift-G, and paste the path):
-
~/Library/LaunchAgents— per-user agents (safe to inspect) -
/Library/LaunchAgentsand/Library/LaunchDaemons— system-wide, installed by apps
Each .plist file is named after the app that owns it. The clean fix is to uninstall the app with its own uninstaller (which removes the agent properly) rather than deleting the file by hand. Never touch /System/Library — those belong to macOS itself.
On older macOS (Monterey and earlier)
If your Mac runs Monterey, Big Sur, or older, the list lives in a different place: System Preferences → Users & Groups → your account → Login Items tab. Select an app and click the minus button. The Dock and in-app methods above work identically on old versions.
Will this actually make your Mac faster?
Usually, yes — and it is one of the few free fixes with a real payoff. Every login item costs memory all day, not just at boot, and on 8GB Macs that is often the difference between smooth and beachballing. Trimming startup apps is fix #5 in our full MacBook running slow guide, which walks through all nine speed fixes in order of impact. If the Mac is still crawling after a clean startup list, the bottleneck is elsewhere — that guide shows you how to find it.
Related guides
- MacBook Running Slow? Every Fix in Order
- How to Boot Your MacBook in Safe Mode — Safe Mode skips login items entirely, which is how you test whether one is causing a problem
- How to Factory Reset a MacBook
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do apps keep opening when I start my Mac?
They are either in your Login Items list (System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions), enabled in the Allow in the Background list, set to open at login from their Dock icon, or switched on inside the app’s own preferences. Check those four places in that order — one of them has the switch.
I removed an app from Login Items but it still opens. Why?
The app’s internal “launch at startup” setting is still on, and it re-registers itself every time it runs or updates. Open the app, find the setting in its preferences, and turn it off there. If it has no such setting, check the Allow in the Background toggles and, as a last resort, its launch agent (see above).
Is it safe to remove everything from Login Items?
Yes. Removing a login item never uninstalls or breaks the app — it just stops auto-launching, and you can open it normally any time. The only things worth keeping are tools you rely on from the moment you sign in, like cloud-sync clients or a clipboard manager.
How do I stop my Mac reopening old windows and documents?
Uncheck “Reopen windows when logging back in” in the Restart/Shut Down dialog. For a single app, hold Shift while it launches to stop it restoring its previous windows.
Does stopping startup apps make a MacBook faster?
It is typically the biggest free speed win, especially on 8GB machines — background apps hold memory all day. If your Mac is slow even with a clean startup list, work through the rest of the fixes in our running slow guide, or if the machine is simply aging out, see what it is worth as a trade-in toward a faster refurbished Mac.