Windows has two settings that carry your work again after a restart, and each are off by default

I’d turned off every startup app, but Windows might nonetheless reopen the apps I’d been utilizing earlier than a restart. I discovered this out after enabling a setting that was off by default on my PC. A second setting introduced again my File Explorer home windows too.

Together, they let Windows restore a lot of my interrupted workspace with out making me open the identical apps each time I begin my PC.

Windows can reopen your apps by itself

Mine was off till I switched it on

My restarts are by no means deliberate. A PC that is been slowing down forces some, a couple of low-memory crashes pressured others, and updates add their very own. Setting active hours solely adjustments when an replace restarts you, not what you come again to. Each time, the apps, tabs, and folder I used to be utilizing are gone.

The first setting is Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them after I signal again in. It does a lot of the work. You’ll discover it in Settings -> Accounts -> Sign-in choices, underneath Additional settings. It was off on my PC, so I needed to toggle it on.

It’s completely different from startup apps in Task Manager. That solely opens the identical record on each boot, whether or not you used them or not. This setting reopens what you truly had open earlier than the restart.

I turned it on, opened Notepad with two tabs and a few unsaved textual content, plus Firefox, Word, Settings, and two File Explorer home windows, and restarted. Notepad was again earlier than the desktop completed loading, with each tabs and my textual content precisely the place I’d been typing. Firefox, Word, and Settings adopted.

Windows doesn’t reopen each app in its actual spot. Settings got here again on its house web page, not the Sign-in choices web page I’d been on. That’s a small worth to pay in contrast with opening every thing manually; even Workspaces does not try this a lot.

It introduced my browser tabs again by itself

This is what offered me. I hold the session restore setting off in Firefox, Chrome, and Brave, on function. I exploit Rewind to restore whatever I’m working on, and I change between modifying and writing rather a lot. If a browser reopened outdated tabs by itself, I’d must clear them out earlier than restoring the session I would like, and the tabs would pile up.

I desire a clear slate each time I open a browser. None of them is in my startup apps both, and if I open any of them by hand, I get one empty tab.

After the restart, Firefox got here again with the tabs restored the way in which I left them, even earlier than my web connection was again, with no error web page. In my later checks with each settings on, Chrome and Brave did the identical. The Windows setting was the one factor I’d modified, and it was the one motive these tabs returned.

To me, that is the suitable habits for a restore characteristic. On a standard day, I get a recent browser. When Windows restarts and interrupts me, I get my session again.

Folders want their very own setting

My snapped home windows returned to the place I’d left them

File Explorer did not come again with the primary setting, so I turned to the second choice: Restore earlier folder home windows at logon. To discover it, open File Explorer, choose the three-dot menu -> Options -> View tab. It was off on my PC, too. I switched the restartable apps setting off to check the folder choice by itself. Then I opened Downloads, Videos, and Documents in three home windows, organized them with Windows 11 Snap Layouts.

All three got here again with the restart, in the identical format, every within the actual folder I’d been in. I did not must navigate by means of any folder paths once more, and nothing else reopened. So this setting does one job, and it does it cleanly.

The two settings are separate on my PC. Microsoft’s release notes for Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2 say turning on the apps setting mechanically switches on some File Explorer settings, they usually describe a gradual rollout. On my 25H2 construct, the folder field stayed unchecked after I turned the apps toggle on, and Explorer stayed closed till I ticked it myself. If you need each, change on each.

It will not carry every thing again, and that is superb

Seven of 9 got here again

The honest criticism is that it does not carry every thing again. With each settings on, I had 9 apps open: Chrome with eight or 9 tabs, Brave, Firefox, Word, Notepad, Paint, File Explorer, VLC, and CapCut with a file open.

Seven got here again the place I left them, together with the browser tabs. VLC and CapCut by no means opened. I felt the CapCut exception as a result of I do my edits there, so I nonetheless needed to relaunch and discover my recordsdata once more.

These settings don’t assure that each app will return or resume precisely the place it stopped. But I’ll nonetheless take that each time. Without the settings, a restart leaves me with an empty desktop and 9 apps to reopen from reminiscence. With them, I open two apps manually.

Turn them on earlier than the subsequent restart

If your PC usually wants a restart, for no matter motive, allow each settings earlier than the subsequent one.

When the subsequent replace asks for a restart, let it. Mine introduced again the identical apps as a routine restart. Whatever stays closed is your record to open by hand.