Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Douglashh · Jul 8, 2009, 04:06 PM

Is there any way to get the Login Items to show in the order I would like? I've deleted all of them and put them in the order I'd like but they still show in a different order in the menu bar. Is there a plist file that may be corrupt I could delete and start anew.

I'm using 10.5.7

Thanks

Spheric Harlot · Jul 8, 2009, 05:04 PM

"Menu bar"? You mean Dock?

Just drag the items into the order you want them on the Dock. They will remain there.

ide3308 · Jul 8, 2009, 05:14 PM

i think the problem is the order that "start on login" items are launching

Douglashh · Jul 8, 2009, 07:33 PM

I mean the menu bar not the Dock.

Douglashh · Jul 8, 2009, 07:33 PM

So how do I fix the launch order of the Login items?

cgc · Jul 8, 2009, 08:05 PM

Why do you think the order they are on the menubar isn't indicative of the order in which they launch? I ask this because you can drag some menubar items around to rearrange them (via command-right mouse button click drag).

ghporter · Jul 8, 2009, 08:15 PM

Originally Posted by cgc

Why do you think the order they are on the menubar isn't indicative of the order in which they launch? I ask this because you can drag some menubar items around to rearrange them (via command-right mouse button click drag).

It's CMD-Left button. It doesn't work for all items in the menu bar, like Spotlight, but it seems to work for most of them. Even the clock.

Douglashh · Jul 8, 2009, 09:17 PM

I have an old mouse with no left or right buttons. Is there a key command for left and/or right button?

Chuckit · Jul 8, 2009, 09:40 PM

If you have a one-button mouse, your button is the left button. Just command-drag.

0157988944 · Jul 8, 2009, 10:54 PM

Pretty sure he's talking about third party menu bar apps, which don't use Apple's secret menu bar API so they can't be dragged. They appear in the order, right to left, of when they were launched.

cgc · Jul 9, 2009, 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by adamfishercox

Pretty sure he's talking about third party menu bar apps, which don't use Apple's secret menu bar API so they can't be dragged. They appear in the order, right to left, of when they were launched.

My point was, if they can be ordered, it would imply that the order on the menubar has nothing to do with the order they load at login. I meant command-left...brain-farted when I typed that earlier.

Douglashh · Jul 9, 2009, 01:08 AM

Adamfishercox is correct, the apps I working with are 3rd party. Is there any any way to change the launch order.

BTW my mouse has NO buttons at all. I can just click.

AKcrab · Jul 9, 2009, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by Douglashh

BTW my mouse has NO buttons at all. I can just click.

Then you can only left-click. Every other kind of click will make you push buttons while you click.

cgc · Jul 9, 2009, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by Douglashh

BTW my mouse has NO buttons at all. I can just click.

Funny, for some reason that reminded me of a quote from an Army soldier after the first Gulf War. When asked if US space-based assets were valuable in the war the soldier replied, "no, I only needed my weapon and my GPS."

Hint: GPS uses satellites...

ghporter · Jul 9, 2009, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by cgc

Funny, for some reason that reminded me of a quote from an Army soldier after the first Gulf War. When asked if US space-based assets were valuable in the war the soldier replied, "no, I only needed my weapon and my GPS."

Hint: GPS uses satellites...

Obviously "space-based assets" meant something different to him than satellites. The manual for the then-current GPS receiver (and all the civilian ones that were sent to the troops by their families) make it abundantly clear that it's a satellite receiver. I can't help but think that the Soldier thought the question was about something very different from GPS.

And obviously Douglashh was thinking about the multiple buttons on modern mice-like my MightyMouse, which has three obvious "buttons" plus the non-obvious left and right click functions...

Maybe I'm being pedantic about it, but your post did come across as kind of snarky.

Douglashh · Jul 10, 2009, 01:09 AM

I did not take it as snarky at all.

ghporter · Jul 10, 2009, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by Douglashh

I did not take it as snarky at all.

I guess I was just sensitive at the time...

pendragon · Jul 10, 2009, 11:16 AM

FWIW: TinkerTool: Description has a preference to change the load order/appearance of icons in the Menu Bar of third party apps.

It's been my experience that it works with some, but not all apps. Why that is, I dunno.

Douglashh · Jul 10, 2009, 04:05 PM

Thanks pendragon I'll give that a look.

cgc · Jul 10, 2009, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Obviously "space-based assets" meant something different to him than satellites. The manual for the then-current GPS receiver (and all the civilian ones that were sent to the troops by their families) make it abundantly clear that it's a satellite receiver. I can't help but think that the Soldier thought the question was about something very different from GPS.

And obviously Douglashh was thinking about the multiple buttons on modern mice-like my MightyMouse, which has three obvious "buttons" plus the non-obvious left and right click functions...

Maybe I'm being pedantic about it, but your post did come across as kind of snarky.

No, it just struck me when I read the comment about the "no buttons on my mouse" to be in the same vein as the "hey we don't need no space assets, we just need these GPS devices...'

ghporter · Jul 10, 2009, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by cgc

No, it just struck me when I read the comment about the "no buttons on my mouse" to be in the same vein as the "hey we don't need no space assets, we just need these GPS devices...'

As I said, I must have been over sensitive about something. Probably about this idiocy, actually. Sorry for the rant.

On topic: I currently have two items (other than Spotlight) in my menubar that don't move. They're both from third-party apps: Missing Sync and Norton AntiVirus. I would consider both of these companies "good to very good" in terms of using available APIs to integrate their products correctly. So I think I have to agree with adamfishercox that this is something caused by Apple not letting developers use the appropriate API for completely and correctly integrating menubar items. I think it's kind of odd that they'd freeze out developers this way, too.

Douglashh · Jul 11, 2009, 02:16 AM

Gave TinkerTool a try and it made things worse. Even after having Tinkertool reset everything to system defaults. By worse I mean that it moved the app icon further to the right and I want it all the way to the left.

chabig · Jul 11, 2009, 11:45 AM

Maybe you need to write a short Applescript to launch the items in the right order, and then put the script app in your login items?

Douglashh · Jul 11, 2009, 01:09 PM

I think writing an Applescript is a bit about my pay grade. I'll just live with it the way it is. I can always quit the app and relaunch to get it into the position I want.