can you control services and programs that start up in OS X?

Question

Went from windows to OS X. Need to find a program that will let me edit what programs and services start up when I boot OS X. In windows there are many ways that I know of.

service manager in windows lets me disable services, where is the OS X equivalent?

I can edit registry in windows to make sure programs and services do not start. How is this done in OS X? Where can I see whats starting and edit those?

several programs in OS X install things I do not want to run. for instance spotify installs spotify helper, chrome installs chrome helper. Lots of programs install services. This is slowing my computer. I was directed to “users and groups” then auto login items. This does not work on some programs and some of the programs are not listed. This is not a serious solution

In windows there are several programs to stop services. My favorite is “kill them all” from D7 batch program. Is there any program with similar functionality in OS X?

Is it possible to start the os with only apple services and programs running without uninstalling the third party programs? (other than using safe mode)

Answer 1

Try this if you already haven't Command+Spacebar and typing “Activity” followed by the Return key.

Also you can view this article: http://osxdaily.com/2013/05/17/see-all-running-apps-mac-os-x/

Answer 2

If you're lookng specifically for programs that run at startup, check out this really great reference on launchd

Basically anything that wants to start at boot puts a .plist file in one of a few locations:

~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons