Universal Access process in Activity Monitor although "off"

I have also noticed the UniversalAccessApp in the Activity Monitor with the most recent update to (10.4.8) whereas I didn't before this update (whether it existed or not I'm unsure of but even if it was there it was lightweight). All Universal Access pref pane settings are set to "off" but still see the app running. I have also noticed that when move my cursor the app elevates its priority (as though its tracking my every move). The app does not elevate when I enter a keystroke or a series of repetitive keystrokes.

Apple needs to explain what's going on here...

Dual G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

One of the glitches with the 10.4.8 update is the little rectangle around the mouse pointer from the new Zoom functions added with the update. I just checked and sure enough the UniversalAccessApp was on, evidently by default. I have never seen it on before, and definitely resent it eating 6% of my CPU to track the mouse. In Activity Monitor I selected it and clicked Quit Process, then the Force Quit button. It hasn't reappeared. I just checked my Login items and "/Library/StartupItems" but nothing has been added, nor does anything seem to have been changed in "/System/Library/StartupItems" either. I even took a look at the system.log, but nothing in there about starting it either.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

OK, I did a cry for help and wonderful Niel had read a discussion of this issue:

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-61454.html

I do read MacOSXHints, but I don't generally read their forums, just the hints. That'll teach me! If you do not have Property List Editor available, I edited mine (haven't actually restarted yet, so I guess I'm just having faith that it will work), and put it in my .Mac space:

http://homepage.mac.com/francines/.Public/access.zip

Download it, double click to unzip and drag the resulting com.apple.universalaccess.plist file into your home Preferences folder. You may want to move the original to another folder or your Desktop first in case it doesn't work right. Here's where it goes:

"/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.universalaccess.plist"

Let's hope this does the trick!
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

It was always running even before 10.4.8 on my computer. I guess it's normal: the application must run in the background and apply your UA settings such that Black on White, even if most of them are set to "off".

Yes, it will indeed restart when the system restarts--that's why I was checking to see if I could figure out what is telling it to run, so I could tell it to stop doing that. No luck. For the time being the only recourse is to quit it from Activity Monitor every time you restart. I'm going to ask some other Level 4s if they know what the scoop is, and if there is something to be done, aside from writing a shell script to automatically run in LogIn items after startup and turn it back off again.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder