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I don't often restart my MacBook or iMac. In fact, the only time that actually happens is when either gets an upgrade. But if you regularly shut off your Macs (either for travel or simply out of habit), you might want to consider enabling certain applications to start immediately upon logging in.

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For example, you know you're going to use your web browser right away, so why not have it start as soon as you restart your machine? I typically set my browser and email client to start at login -- I mean, why not skip a few clicks and save some time? 

But how do you enable those applications to automatically start? Let me show you.

Jack Wallen

How to add apps to the startup

What you'll need: The only things you'll need for this are a machine running MacOS and whatever apps you intend to run at login installed. I'll demonstrate on a MacBook Pro M1 and use Arc browser and Apple Mail as examples. 

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On both my MacBook Pro and iMac, I have added apps like Rectangle (advanced window tiling) and Bartender 5 (top bar customizations) to start at login. Those aren't apps I directly use, but background services I depend on. That should tell you that you can add apps you'll interact with as well as those that help make your machine look or perform the way you need.

1. Open Settings

First, log into your Mac. Once you've logged in, click the Apple icon in the top left corner and then click System Settings.

You can also open System Settings from the Launchpad on your Dock.

Jack Wallen

2. Open Login Items & Extensions

In the left pane of the System Settings app, click General. In that section, scroll down until you find Login Items & Extensions. Click that entry.

3. Add your first item

Under "Open at Login," click +, which opens the file picker. Click Applications in the left pane and then scroll until you locate the app you want to add. 

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Click the app in question and then click Open. This will add the app to the list. Repeat this until you've added the apps you want to start at login.

You can also enable/disable apps running in the background on this page.

Jack Wallen

Although you can add as many items as you like, I wouldn't suggest you include too many because that could slow down the login process. Any resource-intensive apps that take up (such as larger apps that depend on databases) should probably not be added to start on your Mac.

Once you've finished this process, close System Settings, and you're done. You can either go back to what you were previously doing or restart your Mac to test if the setup works (it will).

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Congratulations, you've just shaved off a few seconds from a very busy day and configured your Mac so that you can hit the ground running as soon as you log in. 

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