Take that, Apple login items! I've got you now!

For at least two years now, I have been screwing around with my disappearing login items. One day everything would open just fine when my computer booted up, and the next day, they were gone, just disappeared. I started keeping a list of my login items so that I could add them again whenever this happened, which seemed to be several times a month — often enough to make me NUTS! It was a time-consuming pain to keep re-adding the login items.

I tried creating login folders with Tiger Cache Cleaner, then Leopard Cache Cleaner, and MacPilot. I was even creating alarms in AlarmClockPro to open these files after my computer started up every morning. That worked, too, until the login item to start the starters would also disappear!

I Googled the problem and found people having the same issue, but no solutions. I hoped when I upgraded to Snow Leopard the problem would be solved. Nope. Still happening. Not major, in the grand scope of things, but hugely annoying.

Googling the subject again (and again), I found where several people suggested replacing the com.apple.loginitems.plist file. It didn't make a difference, BECAUSE [drum roll, please] it was the wrong file! It turns out it's the loginwindow.plist file, also in the Preferences folder. Once I got my login items the way I wanted them, I duplicated the file and started keeping a copy on my desktop. When I don't see all my icons in the menu bar that should be there, I replace the file in the Preferences folder with a copy of my "good" loginwindow.plist file, reboot, and all is right with the world.