Guides · October 15, 2026

What starts with your Mac and what it costs

Login items, launch agents and background helpers all start when you log in. Most cost very little. Here is how to see which ones cost something.

Every Mac starts a handful of things when you log in that you never opened. Some are useful: a password manager, a backup client, a sync folder. Some are leftovers from an app you stopped using a year ago. Most of them cost very little. A few cost real memory, and a few wake up often.

The honest answer

There is no number of startup items that is too many. What matters is what each one does while it sits there:

• Memory. A background app that stays running holds memory the whole time you are logged in. On a Mac with 8 GB, a few of those add up.
• Wake-ups. Some items start a helper every few minutes to check for updates or sync. Each wake-up is small, but they run all day, and on battery they add up.
• Login time. More things starting at once means a slower first minute after you sign in.

An item that stays idle and small costs almost nothing, and turning it off gains you nothing. Be wary of any tool that tells you “23 things slow your Mac” without saying which ones, or what each costs.

Where things start from

macOS has more than one place for this, which is why one list never tells the whole story:

• Login Items in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. The top list is apps that open when you log in. The “Allow in the Background” list is helpers that apps have registered.
• Launch agents are small files in ~/Library/LaunchAgents (yours) and /Library/LaunchAgents (every user). They start programs at login or on a schedule.
• Launch daemons in /Library/LaunchDaemons run for the whole Mac, before anyone logs in. These usually need an administrator to change.

Apple’s own items live in system folders and are not worth touching.

How to check yourself

1. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions and read both lists. Switch off apps you know you do not use. You can switch them on again any time.
2. Log in fresh, wait five minutes, then open Activity Monitor and sort the Memory tab by size. Anything you did not open yourself and that holds a lot is worth a look.
3. On the CPU tab, sort by “Idle Wake Ups” (right-click the column bar to add it). An item with a high count while you are not using it is waking up often.
4. In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder and open ~/Library/LaunchAgents to see what is there. A file whose app you removed long ago can be left behind. You can move it to the Trash, and move it back if something breaks.

How Hedroom does it

Tools › Startup items lists what it finds in your own LaunchAgents folder and in the two system-wide folders, who signed each one, and why it starts. Memory is read five minutes after your last login. Until it has seen one, a typical size is shown with a “~”.

It suggests an item only in two cases: its program is gone, or you used the app in at most 1 of your last 10 logins. It does not suggest anything until it has watched 10 logins, and never for background-only apps, backup or sync apps, or apps it has never seen run. Apple’s items are not listed.

Turning an item off renames its file so it does not start at your next login. It does not delete anything and does not stop something that is running now. Hedroom then measures your next login and writes a receipt. If the change did not make a difference you can measure, the receipt says so.

Two limits. Hedroom switches items in your own LaunchAgents folder; for the others it points you to Login Items. And apps that add themselves in System Settings cannot be listed without admin rights, so use Login Items for those. Seeing the list is free; turning items off is part of Pro.

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Want Hedroom to do the checking? It reads memory pressure and swap for you, names the app that matters, and gives every fix a receipt. See how the free trial works or join the waitlist.