When I start up my mac, my word, excel and powerpoint applications open as well

I Solved this issue doing this. So i finally rid off of the excel starting automatically.

1. Disable "Open Excel Workbook Gallery when application opens". this is under Excel>Preferences>General.
2. On you dock locate the Excel Icon, press control and click over the excel icon, a new windon will popup, choose options and the ENABLE the option "OPEN AT LOGIN" and release the control button.
3. Repeat item 2 but this time DISABLE the option "OPEN AT LOGIN".

It might be a bug on Excel, you know MICROSUCK and their famous bugs !!!!.

Good luck, hopefully this will solve your problem.

If you have tried all of the above, and still are having the same issue (like me), with your applications automatically opening upon restart/ startup, there is a handy-dandy check box that appears before shutdown/ restart that you can uncheck to prevent this from happening 😉:

hello. Open system preferences>users and groups. make sure the admin is highlighted>log in items (top right of window), and delete the ones you do not want to open with. (at bottom of that list are + and - signs....)

It is called Resume.

When choosing Restart, Sleep or Shutdown there is a checkbox you can uncheck to prevent the apps from launching.

Also in System Preferences > General there is a hard-to-find checkbox under "Number of recent items" you can turn off.

Also, you can hold the shift key to disable resume on a one time basis.

If you want to turn it off on a per app basis, (TextEdit is by example, replace TextEdit with the name of the app)

Launch Terminal and copy/paste this at the prompt...

defaults write com.apple.TextEdit NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

Press return.

You can also accomplish this through the GUI by going to ~/Library/Saved Application State/TextEdit and delete that file…

To turn off Resume globally...

chflags uchg ~/Library/"Saved Application State"

Press return

The reverse of the first one is to replace false with true.

The reverse of the second one is

chflags nouchg ~/Library/"Saved Application State"

Again, you can accomplish this through Finder by going to ~/Library/Saved Application State and deleting the folder.

cassieuae wrote:

Is it possible to have some kind of a virus???

If you do, it will the first on a Mac. Comb your hair and put on a clean shirt, the paparazzi will be at your door soon.

I don't know what's causing it but restoring your Mac won't cure if you also migrate your user data and if you don't migrate you're looking at a clean install for something which can probably be easily fixed.

Did you go to ~/Library/Saved Application State and delete the items?

(You need to go your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key to choose that "Library")

some vague ones.. I never used WordExcel or powerpoint, so I am going on guesswork...but maybe in their preferences pane they have a place to select them NOT To start with computer? As they are for the corporate world, maybe they think that is all that is needed by default?

Let me search my help and see..

Oh and how about in the dock? YES- OK click on the picture in your dock, ad hold...then a menu appears and go to options and one option is open at log in.... deselect that, report back.

I will return within the hour..

I will offer a reallystupid choice since I am lost onthis.

Log in, the things open, then you Quit them.

And you DID look at the preference panes of the undesired appearing upon log-in items? And nothing about open at log in or not was given as an option?

I am lost as to what to suggest- like I said- I do not, and never have, run those programs. I am so sorry.

WAIT- one more item to consider. Are you on a network? As in, at work, and do file sharing and all? So that, when you log in, automatically you are keyed in with the local (company/gov't ) server?

If that is the case, in my limited knowledge of such I will venture the guess that you will continue to see those programs each time you log in. Or turn off file sharing temporarily.....

Again- I apologize that I am unable to rectify the situation.

OK I found this: (what it means is quit the apps before you log out!)

You know what I forgot was Lion's "Resume" feature. If you leave something open when you shutdown it will automatically open right back where you left everything.
1) You can shut down applications and save documents
Or
2) Turn this off in System Preferences > General > Uncheck Restore windows when quitting and re-opening aps
How to disable the Resume feature on a per-application basis,MacStories has the Terminal command. For Safari, that would look like this:
Code:
defaults write com.apple.Safari NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

I found this page also:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/switcher-hangout/275084-why-does-office-open-up -excel-powerpoint-automatically-when-i-start-my-mac.html

Did you solved this issue? I have the same problem

Rubjar -- Your solution worked for me, too, although for some reason I was able to dispatch the open-Excel-at- startup problem using only your first step. This annoying problem began when I installed Mountain Lion a few days ago. Thanks to you and all who contributed to this helpful thread.

This worked like a charm for me! I had been dealing with this problem for at least a year now. Thanks so much for posting your information!