Can I default the 'Reopen windows' flag to 'off'

Question

With Lion, a new logout option appears to 'Reopen windows at login.' It defaults to 'on,' meaning two clicks to exit if that is not your usual work flow. I thought there used to be an option to change the default, but it didn't work. Now, I can't even find that Preference, although I may just not be looking in the right places.
Is there a way to not have to de-select this option every time I log out?
Thanks,
g

Answer 1

If you want to permanently avoid having to uncheck the "Reopen windows when logging back in" checkbox at each shutdown, you may consider doing this:
1. Close all apps you don't want to open at startup.
2. Open your user Library folder. It is normally invisible, so press the Option key while selecting the "Go" menu in the Finder then select "Library" to open it.
3. Use the Get Info dialog "Locked" checkbox to lock this plist file:
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.loginwindow.*.plist
where "~" is your home folder and "*" is a sequence of characters (12 in my case). No need to lock the corresponding lockfile.
This plist is where the System stores "reopen windows" info, so the System can't change/delete it if it is locked. This won't change the "Reopen windows..." checkbox setting, but that setting will no longer have any effect.