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Mac taking too long to startup? It’s time to deal with those login items
When you first launch a brand new Mac it zips through the startup process. Then, as you continue to use it, startup slows down. As you use your Mac and install software on it, some of that software installs launch agents or launch daemons which load before login and thus slow down the startup.
In addition, some apps install login items, which load after you have logged in, but before your Mac has finished starting up. Login Items are fairly easy to manage — see below. In general, apps or menu bar items that want to launch when you login should ask permission.
Launch agents and launch daemons are different. They are background processes, many of which are installed by Apple and without which your Mac wouldn’t run properly. Others are installed by third–party apps and used to run background processes. Launch agents and launch daemons take the form of special text files — you can inspect and edit them by navigating to them in the Finder and opening them in TextEdit. To find out how many of them are on your Mac, launch Terminal from Applications > Utilities and type: launchctl list.
LEAVE DAEMONS ALONE
Mostly, you should leave launch agents and launch daemons alone. However, if you spot any that have been installed by applications you have removed, you can trash them. Apps should do that when you run their uninstaller, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
If you don’t want to do that manually, there are third-party apps that scan your Mac for launch agents and enable you to choose which to delete.