Help · Guides · Pangalin Uninstaller
How to manage startup items.
Many apps add something that starts when you log in or runs in the background: an updater, a menu-bar helper, a sync agent. macOS shows most of them in System Settings. Pangalin Uninstaller's Startup tab also shows the launch agents behind them and lets you switch your own off, see which app each one belongs to, and stop items still running from apps in the Trash. It's free.
The built-in way: System Settings
- Choose Apple menu › System Settings › General › Login Items (called Login Items & Extensions on newer macOS).
- Under Open at Login, select an app and click – to stop it opening when you log in.
- Under Allow in the Background, switch off anything you don't want running. Some apps need their background item to work properly (for example, backup or sync apps), so switch off only what you recognise.
The Startup tab
- Open Pangalin Uninstaller and click Startup at the top of the window.
- Under Launch agents & daemons, each item is labelled Login agent (yours), System agent or System daemon, with the app it belongs to underneath (Belongs to …). Apple's own items aren't listed.
- To stop one of your own items starting, switch it off. It's disabled straight away, and you can switch it back on at any time.
- To get rid of it, click Remove. The file goes to the Trash.
The Startup tab acts at once. There's no review list and no Undo here. Switching an item off is reversible from the same switch, and a removed item of yours is in the Trash.
Not sure what an item is? Look at the line under it, or uninstall the app it belongs to: the uninstall review includes an app's login and background items.
Items whose app is gone
An orange or red tag under an item says something is wrong: Its app is gone, Its app isn't installed, The program it starts is missing, or Runs from an app in the Trash. If the app is in the Trash, the row offers Show in Trash and Delete app from Trash…. If it's truly gone, macOS drops the item at your next restart.
Items apps register themselves
Many apps now carry their login items and agents inside their own bundle and register them with macOS. These are listed under Registered by apps, each marked Running or Not running. macOS manages them, so switch one off in System Settings › General › Login Items, or uninstall its app.
To end one now, click Stop. It needs no password and deletes nothing, but macOS may start it again at your next login. Stop appears only for items running in your own session; system items need administrator rights.
Apps in the Trash that still run things
macOS keeps an app's login and background items while the app is in the Trash, and can start them again at your next login. The top of the Startup tab lists Apps in the Trash that still have background items. For each one, Delete app from Trash… permanently deletes just that app (or Delete all … from Trash… for several), after you confirm it by name, and macOS removes its items at your next restart. The rest of your Trash isn't touched. This can't be undone.
Looking in the Trash needs Full Disk Access. Without it, the tab says so and offers Open Full Disk Access Settings.
System items: the background helper
System agents and daemons live in Mac-wide folders, so changing them needs administrator rights. Pangalin Uninstaller does this through a small background helper. It's free.
- If you added the helper during setup, there's nothing to do: the banner says System control on. Otherwise click Turn on system control in the Startup tab, and approve in macOS's own window with your password or Touch ID. Pangalin Uninstaller never sees your password.
- System items can now be switched off (reversible from the same switch) or removed. A second list, Application login items, shows the modern login items macOS manages. Those are changed in System Settings; Open Login Items takes you there.
The helper accepts requests only from Pangalin Uninstaller itself. If an older helper is installed, the banner offers Update background helper: approve it once. System launch agents it switches back on run as you, never as administrator.
System items you remove don't go to the Trash. They're kept in /Library/Application Support/Pangalin Uninstaller/Removed Startup Items, with the time added to their name, so you can move one back by hand if you need it. The app doesn't restore them for you.
Still on version 1.4? Its helper has a fault: it installs but can't carry out any request. Update to the latest version (how); the new app asks to update the helper, and then it works.
Changed your mind about the helper? Uninstalling Pangalin Uninstaller removes it.
Related guides
- Uninstall an app completely
- Find leftovers from apps you already deleted
- Uninstall Pangalin Uninstaller
Checked against Pangalin Uninstaller 1.8, 10 October 2026.