Login Items Keeps Returning - HELP

[bodivine]

I need your help please.

I have certain login items that continue to keep coming back and haunting me for halloween. The following items.

1. iCal
2. Dropbox (it is completely deleted)
3. iTunes Helper

I have tried the following:

1. Removed it from the system preferences (unlocked and minused it out)
2. I have removed it from the Library plists
3. I have also unchecked the "Open at Login" for each of these apps.
4. I also updated permissions to make sure that I am the administrator everywhere.

Please tell me what do I have left undone to get rid of this annoyance.

 

[Heb1228]

I'm having the exact same problem in a friend's computer with Mail and iTunes.

Have removed them from Accounts->Login items.
Have unchecked Options->Open at Startup in their dock menus
Have deleted more preference files than I can think of... they still keep coming back.

I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[bodivine]

Hey Heb,

I ended up creating a new admin account, but I don't recommend that, because I had a whole new set of problems. Since no one posted any help, I suggest making an appointment with a genius bar in your neighborhood at the Apple store, they will fix it in no time. The service is completely free.

 

[Heb1228]

After working on it some more, I feel like I've got the problem narrowed down, but can't figure out what to do it fix it.

I can go to Account->Startup Items and delete everything from the list. Then log out and log back in, and the list is repopulated with everything I had just deleted. So for some reason the changes are not being saved properly.

The thing that really doesn't make sense to me is that I've done that plus deleted several plist files associated with login, but the list is still bring repopulated every time.

I've deleted
user/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist
user/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist

Trying to force them to rewrite and lose their information, but somehow the list keeps coming back. I've tried deleting a few other things that were suggested (via google search) as well, but nothing will make this list go away!

 

[bodivine]

Have you checked the information on each item you delete to make sure that you have read/write access?