I ran Etre Check and it apparently found traces of applications I had installed several months ago as demoes, which I had deleted.

I did a thorough search with EasyFind with all options checked, but still couldn't find the files Etre Check refers to. Under "User Login Items," EtreCheck, where "application" should be, returns the words "unknown (missing value)" for NetShredX, USBOverdriveHelper, and WDDriverUtilityHelper. To give an idea of what's supposed to appear in this column, itunes Helper appears as "Application" along with its hard drive pathway.

Any idea what this means?

Every time I've seen your particular "Unknown" it's meant that the app/utility that placed the login item was not in its original location...either gone from my deuced Mac(hina) or moved.

If those items still appear in /Applications/System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items you can just delete them. (I don't recall a login item ever just disappearing when its source disappeared.)

I can't find any files related to these programs. That's why I did a thorough search with EasyFind.

There ARE NO related files; that's why your login items are labeled "Unknown". The files to which they were originally related were, or were part of the contents of, the apps/utilities that placed them, which have since been trashed.

When you installed those apps/utilities they placed login items in /Users/xxx/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist, and when you uninstalled them the login items remained, but with no sources, hence the "Unknowns".

Just delete the login items as I posted, and you'll be done with them.

This is probably one of the reasons Apple has deprecated Login Items and asking developers to move to "Launch Agents".

As we see here, the current mechanism can be confusing, so a change is certainly not out of order.

Edit: In addition, I noticed that Apple has finally put the big kibosh on alphabetizing login items in Yosemite (possibly earlier), and I won't miss the neurotic aggravation associated with non-alpha items.

Two things to try that ought to clarify this issue for you...

1. Navigate to /Applications/System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and hover your cursor over iTunesHelper; you'll see a Unix path.

Now move iTunes from /Apps to your desktop, and hovering will show you "Unknown".

Now move iTunes back, and hovering will show you the original Unix path.

2. Set EasyFind to "Search for: File Contents", and plug in NetShredX, USBOverdriveHelper, and WDDriverUtilityHelper, one at a time; each search should turn up /Users/xxx/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist...probably nothing else.

Those entries are your spurious login items that show "Unknown" in EtreCheck and when you hover your cursor over them in /Applications/System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items. Delete the login items from /Apps... and they'll disappear from your search results.

Hope this helps.

Ah, God. Why didn't I think to look there?

Should also be able to ctrl-click and Reveal in Finder too

In general, yes, but deniro's problem is with "Unknown(s)"; they don't exist on his Mac.

While the physical application files no longer exist, a reference to them exists in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist and that is what is causing the furor.

Is it that plist, or is it /Users/xxx/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist as per item 2. in my post #36699? (My recollection is that it's the latter that governs our present situation.)

(Why did my "deniro's" change to "denier's" in your quote?

Oh! Auto-correct.

That's a bizarre one.

The constant flow of Auto-correct garbage I'm seeing is beginning to make me hate iOS and its devices. I can deal with user typos...their intent is generally quite obvious and easily scoped out, but iOS type-Os are bloody ANNOYING in their busting up the flow of things and diverting my attention in instances in which user typos would not! )

~/ (tilde slash) is Unix/OS X shorthand for /Users/xxx so they are one in the same.

protip: ~ does not work inside quotes, if you are using them to protect spaces etc. "~/Desktop/My Stuff/file1.txt" won't work. For that sort of thing I suggest "$HOME/Desktop/My Stuff/file1.txt" instead

Your eyes have led you down the primrose path.

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist is an entirely different beast than /Users/xxx/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist.

It's been a long time since we've dealt with an issue involving Login Items, and I'm not sure I was ever certain of the difference between the two, but as I said, I believe the latter governs in this instance.

Huh?

Please clarify what doesn't work about that.

V1 is correct. The quotation mark at the beginning of the string will prevent Terminal from correctly parsing/interpreting the command and you are correct that I overlooked loginwindow.

Thanks for clearing that up. (I wasn't questioning V1's post, merely failing to understand it.)