When you turn on your Mac, a number of apps start and open automatically. Often these are not even applications that you use every day. In this tip, we’ll show you how to control which Mac apps start automatically.
Automatically start Mac apps: this is how it works
Every Mac user has a number of fixed apps that he or she uses a lot. These are, for example, Spotify, Slack or the Dropbox app, which can start automatically when you turn on your Mac. There may also be a number of applications that you do not want to be activated from the first moment. Then it can be quite annoying if you have to close the same group of apps every day, because you do not or hardly use them.
Fortunately, macOS lets you control which Mac apps start automatically. To do this, you only need to go through a few steps, which we explain below. This was already possible in previous versions of the operating system, but is also possible in macOS High Sierra.
- Open System Preferences via the menu bar at the top or the icon in your Dock;
- Choose ‘Users and groups’;
- Then click on the button ‘Log in’, after which all apps will appear on the screen that will open automatically when you log in;
- Remove or add apps with the plus or minus sign at the bottom. This allows you to specify exactly which apps are allowed to start automatically.

In the same menu you also see the option ‘Hide’. You have to click on the check mark to activate the option, which indicates that apps will start automatically, but will not appear. Handy if you use a Mac app often, but don’t want to see it immediately when you start your computer. It is active in the background.
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