Stop Malicious Login Items On MacBook Pro

Malicious login items can cause your computer some problems during startup, including frequent crashes. They automatically open at startup or when you are about to log in to your MacBook Pro. You may find your Mac screen comes up with a blank blue color when starting up your computer.

Getting rid of these malicious login items are quite easy to go about. All you need do is detect first the malicious login items before removing them finally from your computer.

Let's get rolling and find out how you can easily detect any malicious login item on your computer.

Steps:

1. “Click Apple menu” On the top-left hand corner of your MacBook Pro desktop is the apple logo. Click on it to get access to a drop-down menu.


2. “Select System Preferences” Locate System Preferences on the list and click on it. The System Preferences window will be displayed.


3. “Choose Users & Groups” Find Users & Groups on the bottom-left hand corner of the window and click on it. The Users & Groups window pops up.


4. “Select your account ID” Find your user account name under Current User on the left panel and click on it to select and be ready for the next action. This should set other tabs to be clickable.


5. “Click Login Item” Find the Login Items tab at the top of the window and click on it. A list of Login Items displays.


You may put down each login item for later use.

6. “Select Login Items” Select all login items available. The items are colored to indicate selection.


7. “Remove all login items” Click the “- “ sign below the login items list. This removes the items from automatically opening when you start your MacBook Pro.


8. “Click Apple menu” Find the Apple menu at the top corner of the desktop and click on it as usual. The drop-down window of the menu shows up.


9. “Click Restart” Find Restart on the menu and click on it to restart your MacBook Pro. Your computer then restarts.


If the computer starts normally without the initial troubles like resulting in a blank blue screen or apps opening automatically, you may have some malicious login items on the list that have been removed.

How to Detect the Malicious Items?
To know which of the items in your list is malicious, you will need to add each of them one after another and restart your computer to see if the solved problem resurfaces.

How to Add Login Items?

10. Implement steps 1-5 above again to begin adding the login items one after another.

11. “Click Add” Find the Add (+) button at the bottom left-hand corner of the Users & Groups’ window to add the first login item. Click on it.


12. “Add Login item” Click on an item from the list to add. This makes the item open automatically on startup.


13. “Restart the Computer” Follow steps 8-9 to restart your computer.

Keep adding items one after another by following the steps outlined above and restart after each add. If a restart problem occurs at any time, implement the “Remove” step to remove only the last item that was added which caused the restart problem. That way, you've successfully detected the login item that is malicious.