Yesterday, we learned how to enable Session Restore within Windows. Today, we’ll learn how to achieve the same result with a Registry hack - because what good is a Windows tip from me without a way to play in the Registry?!

What Is It?

There is a feature in Firefox called Session Restore. If Firefox crashes or you close it with two or more tabs open, the next time you open it, Firefox will reopen those tabs!

We can emulate the same feature in Windows XP - but instead of tabs, you can have Windows reopen any open folders that were open the last time you shutdown!

Register Me

Before you start, please read this warning on editing the Registry.

  1. Open the Registry, hit the Windows Key+R
  2. Type the following and hit the “OK” button:
    cmd
  3. Navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
    CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
  4. Double-click the “PresistBrowser” DWORD value
  5. Change the “Value data” key to 1
  6. Click the “OK” button and close the registry.

Next time you restart, whatever window you had open at shutdown will reopen on startup!