Question From Lizzy: I just got this computer from a friend of mine and every time I start up iTunes opens automatically. It always takes a min or two to load and never use the program anyway. Its a real hassle to shut it off every time. Is there a way to stop this from starting automatically?

Jason Answers: Hi Lizzy, there are a couple of ways to stop this. I’ll show you both.

1. Go to the Apple menu on the top right of your screen and click on System Preferences. Click on the Accounts preferences as shown in the screenshot.

The System Preferences Window

2. After you click on the Accounts preference, click on Login Items.

Accounts Preference Pane

3. You will be presented with a list of items that startup on login. You can select items and click on the “-” button to remove them. Some items are needed by applications, so if you don’t know what it is, then leave it alone. As you can see, I have a lot of items launching at login, but no applications like iTunes.

Lots of Login Items

This is a long way around approach.

You can also right-click (hold down the “control” key while you click if you don’t have a right-click mouse or trackpad) on the icon of the application that launches on startup in your Dock. You will be presented with a contextual menu that has an option to “Open at Login”. Click it if it is checked to turn it off.

The Dock Icon Contextual Menu

This way is much easier!

- Jason