TUAW Tips: Login Items

Login Items can be your friend, or your foe. Located in System Preferences, under Accounts, you can find 'Login Items' waiting for your attention.

What are Login Items, you ask? It is an easy way to have applications launch automatically whenever you log into your Mac, plus there is an option to 'Hide' the launch, so it can be launched automatically and invisibly.

New, let's get back to the friend and foe part of this tip. Login Items can be your friend because it enable your Mac to launch all the applications that you always have running for you
(i.e. your browser, email client, iChat, and what have you). No muss, no fuss. Cool, huh?

However, I bet that even if this is the first time you have ever heard of Login Items, there are items scheduled to run when you log in.
This is because when you install certain programs they, in order to be helpful, create a Login Item for themselves
(like Gizmo Project did on my Mac, a fact that I always forget). This can be a little annoying, and some Mac users may not know why Gizmo (for example) always launches when they log in. Mystery no more!

So, check out what is listed under your Login Items and remove anything you don't need, but also take the time to put this feature to good use because you want your Mac to work for you, not the other way around.