Preview and other apps reopening windows

[aberrero]

I used to have a macbook air that I would use only ocassionally, and this behavior didn't bother me TOO much. Now that I have a retina MBP that I use as my everyday machine, it's starting to really bug me. I open a PDF and then 10 other documents from last week open up along with it. Every time I restart my computer I get a whole mess of apps opening up at login and cluttering my dock.

What was Apple thinking and how do I get rid of it?

 

[benwiggy]

This is the new "Resume" feature in Lion. You will find many pages on the internet devoted to trying to get rid of it. (Obviously, people who do like it have not written loads about it.)

You can close all the windows by holding <alt> while clicking the red button on one window, or <alt> <Command> W.

Similarly, holding down <alt> while quitting will close all the windows first.

My advice is: Get used to it. Once you get used to the fact that Quitting an app is not a method for closing all your windows, it actually becomes very useful. Also, once you get used to the idea that shutting down does not quit apps, it's very useful.

 

[quasinormal]

This in my view is the most objectionable thing about post 10.6 and iOS integration. Why the the hell should we have a machine dictate how we interface with it. I loathe the close to 5 minute boot times on a 5400rpm hd, should i happen to forget to deselect a box. If my 2011 machine crashes, the OS tries to duplicate the scenario that caused the crash. Now that's brilliant thinking.

I agree, what the hell are apple thinking.

I get a new ssd next week. I think I'll go back to snow leopard.

 

[aberrero]

My advice is: Get used to it. Once you get used to the fact that Quitting an app is not a method for closing all your windows, it actually becomes very useful. Also, once you get used to the idea that shutting down does not quit apps, it's very useful.

My problem is that I close down individual windows while using an app, but when I launch the app again they all open back up again.

Same with the bootup. I just booted my system up and Mplayer and Aperture opened up at login, even though I wasn't using them before I restarted.

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This is what I was looking for, https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/20/how-to-disable-lions-resume-feature/

Hopefully that actually fixes it.

 

[benwiggy]

My problem is that I close down individual windows while using an app, but when I launch the app again they all open back up again.

Are you sure you closed the window? Not Minimized it? It is very weird for an app to load back documents that you have previously closed.

Personally, I find Resume very useful. It is one of the reasons that I put up with other aspects of Lion that I don't like so well. (And the bugs.)

But each to their own.

 

[aberrero]

I did.

For example right now I opened upa new copy of my Lease and in the background it opened up the old copy I was looking at yesterday. I had to read through them to figure out which was which and close the old one. There needs to be a way to turn this off, IMO.

 

[JediMeister]

I did.

For example right now I opened upa new copy of my Lease and in the background it opened up the old copy I was looking at yesterday. I had to read through them to figure out which was which and close the old one. There needs to be a way to turn this off, IMO.

There is, in System Preferences->General, uncheck "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps," and uncheck the "Reopen windows when logging back in" that you get when shutting down/restarting.

Oops, just re-read the last post.

In short, if a document/file is reopening on login/launching of an application, it was open before the quit/restart. If you make absolutely certain the application is completely quit and not just minimized and you have disabled the two checkmarks I pointed out, only the normal splash screen/blank document should be appearing on launch.