MacOS disable auto-run of applications upon log in?

Question

Is it possible to prevent MacOS application auto-run at login even if it can't be found in the System Preferences under: Users & Groups → Login Items?

Answer 1

Disable autostart using Microsoft OneDrive Updater as an example

1. Check applications that you have:

ls -l /Library/LaunchAgents/*.plist

output:

-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  523 Feb 17 14:30 /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.OneDriveStandaloneUpdater.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  377 Feb 17 14:30 /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist

2. Open OneDrive Updater:

sudo nano /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.OneDriveStandaloneUpdater.plist

output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.microsoft.OneDriveStandaloneUpdater</string>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/Applications/OneDrive.app/Contents/StandaloneUpdater.app/Contents/MacOS/OneDriveStandaloneUpdater</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array/>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>StartInterval</key>
        <integer>86400</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

3. Change RunAtLoad to false:

<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>

<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<false/>

4. Save changes

5. ...

6. Profit

_{＊Checked at Catalina and Big Sur versions}