How To: Remove ABF Hotkey from the Startup Items

A while back I experimented with A Better Finder Rename, eventually to decide it wasn't for me. Unfortunately, it had and continues to have the annoying effect of propagating ABF HotKey in my Startup Items (Startup Items tab of the Accounts preference pane in Mac OS X 10.3.8). I've deleted it a bunch of times from there only to find it reappearing, strangely resembling Windows-esque spyware and the like.

Here's the removal procedure from A Better Finder Rename's website:

How can I get rid of the "ABF HotKey" application. I don't use the hot key anyway.

(Applies only to version 6.6.6 and later)

Simply go to "System Preferences...", select the "A Better Finder Preferences" pane and untick the "Activate hot key" checkbox.

The hot key application is unpopular with some people who closely monitor their installation and configuration. In order to prevent confusion, here are some technical details about how this works:

The "ABF HotKey" application provides hotkey access to all A Better Finder products and is an essential part of A Better Finder Launcher. It registers itself as a login item, so that the hot key is always available.

When the application is not used (i.e. Launcher is not installed and all "Activate hot key" checkboxes are unticked), it quits of its own accord to save memory. Every time you log into your account, the application will be launched, but will quit automatically if it is not required.

Now it'd be easy enough to uncheck the "Activate hot key" option if I had it installed. So I reinstalled the most recent version, unchecked it while I briefly had it installed on my computer, and then ran the installer again, this time to uninstall A Better Finder Rename. And so far that evil gremlin hasn't reappeared in my Startup Items list.

But a word to the folks over at A Better Finder Rename... let's leave the intrusive programs in the world of Wintel. Even a case like this where it's totally benign (and probably very useful for those who take advantage of it) but way too persistent might raise the hackles of those who've fled the Wintel world's adware, spyware and viruses.