I want to have my apps start with their previous state (windows/tabs/documents), but I do not want to have all the apps I was running before logging out/rebooting/shutting down restart automatically. I see the option:
System Preferences -> General -> Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps
but I want to have the apps keep their state. I tend to open a lot of apps over time and I don't want to put the load on the system or wait while all those apps start when I log in. It may be that Lion cheats and the apps are only really loaded on demand, so there is not the overhead I'm worried about, but the one restart I've done since installing Lion seems to indicate otherwise.
Best Answer
You can simply uncheck Reopen windows when logging back in when rebooting ( -> Restart):
Sadly there doesn't seem to be a preference to make this change permanent. The best solution found so far are a few AppleScripts that let you restart with the option unchecked.