program autostart on bootup

[musicman691]

The feature is call Resume. It opens windows -- any that were open at shutdown. That includes windows that were opened by applications, not just finder windows (which is an application BTW). Resume was introduced in 10.7, presumably to allow you to just pick up where you left off in your last session. It creates and saves a database of the "saved state" of your applications and uses that to decide what to open on startup depending on how preferences are set.

If you choose "close window when closing an app", and uncheck the aforementioned box on shutdown that will help, You can make it app specific, somewhere in preferences. You can also use a terminal command to get rid of it entirely. (I'm not going to post one -- there are a lot of them and I haven't tried any of them)

Did some experimentation with this. If I have the 'close windows when closing an application' box checked which as I understand it disables Resume if I restart my iMac (running OSX 10.9.5) with a folder open and a document in a Mac app and a Firefox window open and I have the 'reopen windows when logging back in' checked when I restart only the Mac applications reopen (as well as the folder that was open before); Firefox does not reopen. If I do the same thing but have Safari open instead of Firefox that reopens when I restart as well as the folder that was open. If I uncheck the 'close windows when closing an application' box in system preferences general tab and have the 'reopen windows when logging back in' checked any application, whether Mac or third party opens.

So it's not a cut-and-dry (or is it try?) deal, at least in Mavericks.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Did some experimentation with this. If I have the 'close windows when closing an application' box checked which as I understand it disables Resume if I restart my iMac (running OSX 10.9.5) with a folder open and a document in a Mac app and a Firefox window open and I have the 'reopen windows when logging back in' checked when I restart only the Mac applications reopen (as well as the folder that was open before); Firefox does not reopen. If I do the same thing but have Safari open instead of Firefox that reopens when I restart as well as the folder that was open. If I uncheck the 'close windows when closing an application' box in system preferences general tab and have the 'reopen windows when logging back in' checked any application, whether Mac or third party opens.

So it's not a cut-and-dry (or is it try?) deal, at least in Mavericks.

I've not gotten that deep into it as I never messed with the alternate setting, but it does make sense that the OS would provide an exclusion for those apps you don't want to open at startup.

That's good sleuthing. Thanks.

[bayswater]

It ought to be that straightforward. When Resume was introduced, there were instances of it persisting for some applications, usually Microsoft apps, despite the settings. These were sometimes handled with terminal commands specific to an application, using the application names in the saved state folder. Perhaps some anomalies have persisted. There was some mention that it can take two launches to update the saved state information, so maybe you have to go through a couple of cycles. Anyway, I keep the reopen box unchecked, and have it "close windows when quitting", and that has worked.

On Snow Leopard, I was able to keep a DP project open for a couple of weeks, and just let the Mac go into sleep mode over night. Subsequent OS X versions have not been as stable, and have to be restarted more often. Having Resume work consistently would give me something close to the former routine.

[musicman691]

Did some experimentation with this. If I have the 'close windows when closing an application' box checked which as I understand it disables Resume if I restart my iMac (running OSX 10.9.5) with a folder open and a document in a Mac app and a Firefox window open and I have the 'reopen windows when logging back in' checked when I restart only the Mac applications reopen (as well as the folder that was open before); Firefox does not reopen. If I do the same thing but have Safari open instead of Firefox that reopens when I restart as well as the folder that was open. If I uncheck the 'close windows when closing an application' box in system preferences general tab and have the 'reopen windows when logging back in' checked any application, whether Mac or third party opens.

So it's not a cut-and-dry (or is it try?) deal, at least in Mavericks.

I've not gotten that deep into it as I never messed with the alternate setting, but it does make sense that the OS would provide an exclusion for those apps you don't want to open at startup.

That's good sleuthing. Thanks.

Not a problem - I had the time and the urge to see what was what.

[monkey man]

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle... soon as my sis pops one out.

Kumbayah!