Configuring macOS Device Login and Background Items

Before you begin

  • Requires macOS 13.0 Ventura and higher.

About this task

Selectively prevent the user from stopping login and background items from running. Login and background items are apps, documents, or server connections configured in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items that automatically open when a user signs in. In macOS Ventura, System Settings replaces System Preferences. With System Settings, the user can toggle login and background items on or off. Toggling off can have implications for compliance, audit and support functions. To override the user's ability to disable login items, Apple provides a new Configuration Profile mechanism to prevent users from disabling login and background items.

Procedure

To configure a device to prevent users from stopping login and background items from running:
  1. Sign into the SOTI MobiControl web console and select Profiles.
  2. In the Profiles view, select the New Profile button.
    Add new profile
  3. In the Add Profile pop-up panel, select Apple and then select macOS Device from the list.
    Select Apple macOS
  4. In the General tab of the Create Profile panel, enter a Profile Name and optionally add a Description.
    Enter an profile name and description
  5. Select the Configurations tab.
  6. Select the Add Configuration button.
    Select add config button
  7. In the Add a Configuration pop-up panel, scroll down in the Security & Restrictions column and select Login and Background Items.
    Add login and background config
  8. In the Login and Background Items pop-up screen, select the Add Login and Background Items button.
    Add login and background item
  9. Enter values for the mandatory Rule Type and Rule Description fields and an optional Comment. Enter more rules as required.
    Select the rule type
    The table below describes the five available rule types.
    Rule type Manages
    TeamIdentifier Any item signed by that team's certificate(s).
    BundleIdentifier Single item exactly matching a bundle identifier.
    Label Single launchd job definition with exactly matching label.
    BundleIdentifierPrefix Any item with a bundle identifier starting with the provided value.
    LabelPrefix Any launchd job definition with a label starting with the provided value.
  10. Select Save to save the rules.
  11. In the Create Profile pop-up screen, select Save to save the profile. Select Save and Assign to save the profile and assign the profile to a device group.

Example

The following video illustrates configuring macOS device login and background items.