What apps do you launch immediately when you boot up your Mac?

For me, I have these set to start automatically when the Mac starts up:

  • Things Helper
  • PopClip
  • KeyCue
  • Paste
  • Moom
  • Drafts
  • iStats Menu
  • ToothFairy
  • Yoink
  • CrashPlan Code42
  • McAfee

Then I manually start these by clicking icons in the Dock.

  • Safari
  • Mail
  • Slack
  • DevonThink
  • Things 3
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Fantastical
  • GoodLinks
  • Day One
  • Notes
  • Messages
2 Likes

Automatically,

  • Timing
  • iStats Menu
  • Clean my Mac X
  • Sip
  • ExpressVPN
  • Backblaze
  • Quitter
  • Bumpr
  • Muzzle
  • Dash
  • f.lux
  • Karabiner Elements
  • Pastebot
  • Better Touch Tool
  • Finicky
  • Bumpr
  • TeaCode
  • Keyboard Maestro
  • AirBuddy
  • Little Snitch
  • Bartender
  • Alfred 4
  • 1Password

And manually open:

  • Safari
  • Spotify

And holy cow do I need to start trimming things running in the background!

1 Like

Log-in items:

  • Arq
  • FreeSpace
  • ChronoSync Scheduler
  • CCC User Agent
  • a remote volume on my NAS
  • Bartender
  • SoftRAID (as a driver)

Manually open:

  • iTunes (still on Mojave)
  • Safari
  • Calendar
  • Mail
  • Excel

A work application: usually

  • AutoCad, or
  • Capture One Pro,
  • or Quark
    (not usually at the same time; CP1 and Acad are memory hogs, especially with iTunes)

MitchWagner, how do you like “ToothFairy”?

Log-in items:

Dropbox
Timing
Fantastical
Amphetamine
KeyCue
Box Sync
OneDrive
PopClip
Keyboard Maestro
Moom
Skype for Business
Shortcat
Shortcut EVE
Revisions
Omnipresence
Devonthink 3
TextExpander
Alfred 4
Default Folder X
Yoink
Fastscripts
Hazel
BetterTouchTool
Duet
Unclutter
Due
Safari

Manually started:

Outlook
Mail
Teams
Whatsapp
Word (invariably)
Bookends
Drafts
Firefox

Timo - is the “remote volume on your NAS” a short cut? What did you setup to automatically mount the volume?

1 Like

If you go to System Preferences --> Users & Groups --> Login Items, you can drag any mounted volume into the login pane for mounting at start-up.

2 Likes

I try not to let auto-launching apps accumulate, although every app seems to think it should be auto-launched, so it’s not always easy.

All I need to have launched at login are these:

via Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro offers a floating palette offering to ‘Launch Apps’ which can either be selected or dismissed.

If selected, it disappears and launches these apps, one at a time, via a shell script (which makes it easy to add/edit/delete/reorder):

All of the above are menu-bar-only apps (or at least are only launched with their menu bar elements open).

No apps live permanently in my dock except for Finder and Launchpad.

The only ‘regular’ app that Keyboard Maestro launches is iTerm2.

Conditionals

Keyboard Maestro also launches the Stream Deck IFF the Stream Deck is attached, and if my iPad is attached, it will also launch Duet Display.

Then What?

When I press Caps Lock, it will trigger Alfred, or (thanks to Keyboard Maestro) it will launch Alfred and then bring up its text box.

From there I usually start FMail to check my personal email.

Once I am done with that, I will check Mailplane for my Gmail account which is mostly email lists, forum messages, etc. 99% is immediately marked as ‘read’ and then I quit Mailplane.

If it’s a workday I will then launch MailMate to check my work email.

Then I check my calendar and go from there.

3 Likes

Why use both Finicky and Bumpr? Don’t they do the same thing?

I like ToothFairy. Easily connects me to my AirPods while on Zoom calls, shows the battery level. Classic “one thing well” type of app.

2 Likes

Another use for Keyboard Maestro! I need to get that up and running on the new Mac.

I like the Dock as another way to switch through apps, and also because it shows me notification badges in one place.

1 Like

I use them for 2 different things.

Finicky:

  1. Automatically changing http => https
  2. amazon.com => smile.amazon.com
  3. YouTube.com => invidio.us
  4. Links from Slack to only open in Firefox
  5. Google.com links only open in Firefox

Bumpr:

  1. When I select a url (that’s not caught by one of the cases above) show all of the browsers I have installed and let me choose which one to open in.

I believe that Bumpr doesn’t do what I use finicky for, and vice versa.

1 Like

Did not know about Invidio – care to share why you use it, or what it’s benefit is over and above just using YouTube?

I primarily use it to get away from Google’s tracking and algorithms.

But, I also use it for:

  • An RSS feed for all of my YouTube subscriptions
  • It actually remembers my preferences for video size and speed across multiple sessions (which YouTube forgets when I quit the browser)
2 Likes

Can you go in to more depth about how you’re using Keyboard Maestro for launching apps?

Is the ‘floating palette’ The “global macro palette” trigger?

Is your shell script a bunch of open -A /Applications/...

Yup.

Yes, and no.

I mean, the simpler way to do this would be to use Keyboard Maestro’s own “Activate Specific Application” and just put in the apps that you want.

But if you want to use a shell script, you could do this:

for APP in \
	'iTerm' \
	'Bartender' \
	'Choosy' \
	'Bumpr' \
	'Moom' \
	'Resilio Sync' \
	'HazelHelper' \
	'HistoryHound' \
	'TextBar' \
	'Typinator' \
	'Forecast Bar' \
	'CCC User Agent' \
	'Semulov' \
	'Audio Hijack 3 Schedule Helper' \
	'SharpshooterAgent' \
	'SoundSource' \
	'Tot' \
	'Rectangle' \
	'Default Folder X'
do

		# Check to see if the app is already running
	pgrep -i -u "$USER" -q "$APP"

	EXIT="$?"

	if [[ "$EXIT" == "1" ]]
	then

			# launch the app and try to hide it
		open -j -g -a "$APP"

			# give it a couple seconds to launch
			# adjust for your personal taste 
		sleep 3

			# try to hide the app, in case it didn't respect 'open's flags
		osascript 	-e 'tell application "System Events"' \
					-e 'try' \
					-e "set visible of process \"$APP\" to false" \
					-e 'end try' \
		   			-e 'end tell'

	fi

done

The list of apps is easy to add or remove apps, or reorganize them.

2 Likes

Start up apps:

  • Drafts
  • Curio 14
  • OmniFocus
  • DEVONthink 3
  • Safari
  • Airmail (drags SpamSieve along for the ride)
  • Fantastical 3
  • Dynalist
  • Tinderbox 8
  • MarginNote 3

Lots of menubar add-ins at startup.

Most days, I bring up Windows 10 under Parallels and launch Outlook and Edge (for OWA access to my current client’s domain). I don’t launch Parallels automatically since it jumps out and tries to do things before the Mac is fully booted and ready to handle them.

1 Like

Start up apps:

  • EncryptMe
  • Keyboard Maestro
  • TripMode
  • Webex
  • Text Expander
  • BetterTouchTool
  • HazelHelper
  • SoundSource
  • Dropbox
  • iStatMenu

I usually open Mail

Automatically launched (in alphabetical order):

  • Adobe CC
  • Alfred
  • Better
  • Freedom
  • Hazel
  • HazeOver
  • Hook
  • Keyboard Maestro
  • Rocket
  • Tot
  • WordCount

Manually launched (in order of likelihood):

  • Hey
  • Safari
  • Scrivener
  • Fantastical
  • Slack
  • BeFocused
  • Zoom
  • Devonthink
  • Tinderbox
  • Bookends

Drafts
Todoist
Spark
Safari

Automatically,

  • Timing
  • iStats Menu
  • Backblaze
  • Cardhop
  • Bartender
  • BetterTouch Tool
  • Keyboard Maestro
  • TextExpander
  • Power Manager
  • Hazel
  • Spectacle
  • Hyperswitch
  • Alfred 4
  • 1Password
  • Macs Fan Control
  • Caffeine
  • CopyClip (Although, no longer needed because of Alfred)