Start your Mac clean, with no old windows

Some people want their Mac to greet them with an empty desktop — no leftover windows, no reopened documents, just a blank canvas to decide the day on. macOS defaults to the opposite: it saves every app's windows and restores them on the next login. One setting flips that for good, so your Mac starts clean every single time.

Why your Mac isn't clean by default

macOS has a feature called Resume. When you quit an app — or shut down, which quits everything — it quietly writes down each app's open windows so it can put them back next time. It's meant to feel seamless, and for some people it is. But if you like starting from nothing, Resume works against you: yesterday's clutter is waiting the second you log in. Turning it off doesn't lose your files; it just means apps open to a blank state, and you open what you actually need.

Flip it off once, for every login

There's a single checkbox that governs this system-wide. The wording is backwards from what you're after, but it's the right switch:

1. Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock.
2. Scroll down to the Windows section.
3. Turn on Close windows when quitting an application.

"Close windows on quit" is the same thing as "start clean on launch." From now on, apps open empty and logins are fresh. This lives in the same place on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia. If you'd rather set it from the command line — handy when you're configuring a new Mac — one line does it:

# Apps open to a blank state instead of restoring old windows
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

# Undo — bring back window restoration
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool true

The setting takes hold for every app you quit afterward, so a single log out and back in makes the whole system consistent. There's nothing to restart or reload.

Clear the shutdown checkbox too

There's a second, smaller lever worth knowing. Each time you pick Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu, the confirmation dialog has a Reopen windows when logging back in checkbox. Leave it unchecked and that particular restart also comes back clean. With the permanent setting above already in place you rarely need to touch it, but it's a nice belt-and-braces habit on the occasions you do a full shutdown.

What "clean" doesn't cover

A blank desktop isn't the same as no apps running. Anything you've set as a login item or background item will still launch itself at startup — window restoration and auto-launching are two different systems. If a couple of apps keep appearing after you log in, they're opening on purpose, not restoring old windows; trim them under System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions. And a handful of apps, Safari chief among them, remember their own sessions independently, so set Safari → Settings → General → "Safari opens with" to A new window if you want it blank too. Handle those three layers and every login really does start from zero.

Curate what does launch

Once the desktop starts blank, the only apps you'll see are the ones you chose. Tidy that list with our guide to managing startup items on Mac so a clean login opens exactly what you want and nothing else.