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What is the correct way to delete a global login item?

I installed a ArcSoft app that added a global login item to the files:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist
/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist

I want to remove this item and would like to know the correct/proper way to do this.

MBP 2.2 GHz Core2Duo 15", Mac OS X (10.5.8), 4 GB RAM

Posted on Dec 7, 2009 1:38 PM

Reply
15 replies

Dec 7, 2009 2:14 PM in response to William Fiveash

Those are preference files not login items. Login Items are found in Accounts preferences by clicking on the Login Items tab. Locate the login item, select it, then click on the [-] delete button.

There are various ways of uninstalling applications. Please see the following:

Uninstalling Software: The Basics

Most OS X applications are completely self-contained "packages" that can be uninstalled by simply dragging the application to the Trash. Applications may create preference files that are stored in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder. Although they do nothing once you delete the associated application, they do take up some disk space. If you want you can look for them in the above location and delete them, too.

Some applications may install an uninstaller program that can be used to remove the application. In some cases the uninstaller may be part of the application's installer, and is invoked by clicking on a Customize button that will appear during the install process.

Some applications may install components in the /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder. You can also check there to see if the application has created a folder. You can also delete the folder that's in the Applications Support folder. Again, they don't do anything but take up disk space once the application is trashed.

Some applications may install a startupitem or a Log In item. Startupitems are usually installed in the /Library/StartupItems/ folder and less often in the /Home/Library/StartupItems/ folder. Log In Items are set in the Accounts preferences. Open System Preferences, click on the Accounts icon, then click on the LogIn Items tab. Locate the item in the list for the application you want to remove and click on the "-" button to delete it from the list.

Some software use startup daemons or agents that are a new feature of the OS. Look for them in /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Library/LaunchDaemons/ or in /Home/Library/LaunchAgents/.

If an application installs any other files the best way to track them down is to do a Finder search using the application name or the developer name as the search term. Unfortunately Spotlight will not look in certain folders by default. You can modify Spotlight's behavior or use a third-party search utility, Easy Find, instead. Download Easy Find at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

Some applications install a receipt in the /Library/Receipts/ folder. Usually with the same name as the program or the developer. The item generally has a ".pkg" extension. Be sure you also delete this item as some programs use it to determine if it's already installed.

There are also several shareware utilities that can uninstall applications:
AppZapper
CleanApp
Yank
SuperPop
Uninstaller
Spring Cleaning

Look for them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.


For more information visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on removing software.

Dec 7, 2009 2:41 PM in response to William Fiveash

the best way is to use the uninstaller that should be provided with the app. kappy listed other options as well but using the provided uninstaller is always the best. or do you mean you want to get rid of the login item only but keep the app? then delete the file /library/loginwindow.plist that you mention. it contains all global login items. the other file you can leave alone. note that this will remove all global login items (not just the ArcSoft one) if you have any more.

Dec 7, 2009 2:45 PM in response to V.K.

I want to keep the ArcSoft Panorama app and ditch the annoying ConnectService app that was added to the global login items. I've looked at the loginwindow.plist file using the properly list editor app and there is currently only one item in there which is the ConnectService app. I've verified the Panorama app will start without the ConnectService app running.

Dec 7, 2009 3:13 PM in response to William Fiveash

William Fiveash wrote:
I want to keep the ArcSoft Panorama app and ditch the annoying ConnectService app that was added to the global login items. I've looked at the loginwindow.plist file using the properly list editor app and there is currently only one item in there which is the ConnectService app. I've verified the Panorama app will start without the ConnectService app running.

then you can safely delete /library/preferences/loginwindow.plist. this file is not required by the system and is not present by default. its only purpose in life is to store global login items.

Dec 7, 2009 3:18 PM in response to Kappy

kappy,
global login items can't be accessed via GUI and are not listed in accounts preferences->login items. user login items are stored in ~/library/preferences/loginwindow.plist. they are the ones you can control from GUI. global ones have no GUI interface and are not used much. some apps do use them though. they are stored in /library/preferences/loginwindow.plist. for example, copy your ~/library/preferences/loginwindow.plist to /library/preferences. then all your login items will start whenever any user logs in.

Dec 12, 2009 2:08 PM in response to V.K.

I deleted and rebooted and the ArcSoft ConnectService app started up again. That surprised me as I thought I had searched (using find, xargs and grep) all the files that contained the string "ConnectService". What I finally did to prevent that app from starting was to rename the folder containing it from:

/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app
/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service-dont-think-so/ConnectService.app

Dec 12, 2009 2:23 PM in response to William Fiveash

that can't be right. look at the console log. there should be an error message when whatever is trying to launch ConnectService.app tries and fails to do so. also, did you check those other places that kappy mentioned:
~/Library/LaunchAfents, /Library/StartupItems, /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/Launchdaemons?
one last and somewhat unlikely place i can think of is to check if there is a login hook installed. run

sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook

anything there?

Dec 12, 2009 3:04 PM in response to V.K.

In the system.log I'm seeing the following after I renamed the /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service folder:

Dec 7 15:32:24 gaak ConnectService[6813]: Error loading /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/Intouch.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Intouc h: dlopen(/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/Intouch.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Intouc h, 262): image not found

Note that I did not actually delete /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
but renamed it to loginwindow.plist.arcsoft-maybe-delete. I did see another loginwindow.plist file was created automagically after I rebooted and I checked it and did not see any items in it.

# defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook
2009-12-12 17:03:50.651 defaults[27792:10b]
The domain/default pair of (com.apple.loginwindow, LoginHook) does not exist

I've looked in all the folders you mention and I do not find anything that references the ArcSoft ConnectService app. Here is everything I could find in /Library using:
find /Library -type f -print0 | xargs -0 grep 'ConnectService'

/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service-/ConnectService.app/Contents/Info.plist: <string>ConnectService</string>
/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service-/ConnectService.app/Contents/Info.plist: <string>ConnectService</string>
Binary file /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service-/ConnectService.app/Contents/Resources/opencs.scpt matches
Binary file /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service-/ConnectService.app/Contents/Resources/quitcs.scpt matches
/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service-/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/Intouch.bundle/Contents/Info.plist: <string>Intouch</string>
/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service-/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/Intouch.bundle/Contents/Info.plist: <string>com.arcsoft.Intouch</string>
Binary file /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/Intouch.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Intouc h matches
Binary file /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/Register.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Regis ter matches
Binary file /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/Update.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Update matches
Binary file /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/Update.bundle/Contents/MacOS/WatchSe lfUpdate matches
Binary file /Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app/Contents/SubApp/UserInfo.bundle/Contents/MacOS/UserI nfo matches
/Library/Receipts/ArcSoftConnect.pkg/Contents/Info.plist: <string>com.ArcSoft.ConnectService.packagemaker</string>
/Library/Receipts/BrowserComponent.pkg/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall. plist: <key>ConnectServiceVersion</key>
/Library/Receipts/BrowserComponent.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:CSPKG="Conn ectService.app"
/Library/Receipts/BrowserComponent.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:inst_majver =`cat "$1/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall.plist"|sed -n '/ConnectServiceVersion/{
/Library/Receipts/BrowserComponent.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:inst_minver =`cat "$1/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall.plist"|sed -n '/ConnectServiceVersion/{
/Library/Receipts/BrowserComponent.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:"$CSPKG/Con tents/MacOS/ConnectService" -r
/Library/Receipts/BrowserComponent.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:echo "$CSPKG/Contents/MacOS/ConnectService"
/Library/Receipts/BrowserComponent.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:"$CSPKG/Con tents/MacOS/ConnectService" -i "$guidStr" "$nameStr" "$serialStr" "$langStr" "$verStr" "$2/$pathStr" "" "$actfilepath" $inst_majver $inst_minver "$license" "$gmidStr"
/Library/Receipts/BrowserComponent.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:#start ConnectService
/Library/Receipts/MediaImpression.pkg/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall.p list: <key>ConnectServiceVersion</key>
/Library/Receipts/MediaImpression.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:CSPKG="Conne ctService.app"
/Library/Receipts/MediaImpression.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:inst_majver= `cat "$1/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall.plist"|sed -n '/ConnectServiceVersion/{
/Library/Receipts/MediaImpression.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:inst_minver= `cat "$1/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall.plist"|sed -n '/ConnectServiceVersion/{
/Library/Receipts/MediaImpression.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:"$CSPKG/Cont ents/MacOS/ConnectService" -r
/Library/Receipts/MediaImpression.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:echo "$CSPKG/Contents/MacOS/ConnectService"
/Library/Receipts/MediaImpression.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:"$CSPKG/Cont ents/MacOS/ConnectService" -i "$guidStr" "$nameStr" "$serialStr" "$langStr" "$verStr" "$2/$pathStr" "" "$actfilepath" $inst_majver $inst_minver "$license" "$gmidStr"
/Library/Receipts/MediaImpression.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:#start ConnectService
/Library/Receipts/Panorama Maker 4.pkg/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall.plist: <key>ConnectServiceVersion</key>
/Library/Receipts/Panorama Maker 4.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:CSPKG="ConnectService.app"
/Library/Receipts/Panorama Maker 4.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:inst_majver=`cat "$1/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall.plist"|sed -n '/ConnectServiceVersion/{
/Library/Receipts/Panorama Maker 4.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:inst_minver=`cat "$1/Contents/Resources/CS/ProdInfoForInstall.plist"|sed -n '/ConnectServiceVersion/{
/Library/Receipts/Panorama Maker 4.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:"$CSPKG/Contents/MacOS/ConnectService" -r
/Library/Receipts/Panorama Maker 4.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:echo "$CSPKG/Contents/MacOS/ConnectService"
/Library/Receipts/Panorama Maker 4.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:"$CSPKG/Contents/MacOS/ConnectService" -i "$guidStr" "$nameStr" "$serialStr" "$langStr" "$verStr" "$2/$pathStr" "" "$actfilepath" $inst_majver $inst_minver "$license" "$gmidStr"
/Library/Receipts/Panorama Maker 4.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight:#start ConnectService

What is the correct way to delete a global login item?

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