One thing that always bugged me about menubar apps is that the OS appears to load them randomly; meaning they never seem to show up in the menubar in exactly the same order. For someone with a little OCD, this can be maddening!
Don’t bother trying to adjust the order in OS X’s Login Items Preferences, it doesn’t work that way.
You can fix this problem manually by using Apple’s Automator app and configuring a custom load at launch app to control the order and time delay between each app’s launch, but it can be time consuming and cumbersome. Instead, here are three apps you can use that accomplish the task easily.
Delayed Launcher:
Free app that allows you to specify the order and time between launch items. I’ve used this for quite a long time and it works great.
Exhaust:
Another free app that is similar to Delayed Launcher, but it doesn’t allow you to hide an app after launching the way the built-in login items preferences or Delayed Launcher does.
Click here to download Exhaust
Startupizer:
At $3.99, Startupizer is a very full-featured startup app organizer that allows a ridiculous amount of customization, including different launch sets based on time of day, power source and more.
Click here to download Startupizer
All three of these apps will do the trick of keeping your menubar icons organized the way you like, and launching the apps you want at login time.