Turn Off Resume on a Per App Basis in Mac OS X Lion with defaults write
In our post on how to disable Resume for Safari or other applications in OS X 10.7, several of our commenters pointed out that it isn’t necessary to change the individual app directories permissions. Alternatively, you can turn off Resume on a per-app basis using a defaults write command entered into the Terminal.
Turn Off Resume on a Per App Basis
Here are a few example defaults strings for individual applications, and then we’ll show you how to find your own strings for other applications:
Turn Off Resume for Safari
defaults write com.apple.Safari NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false
Turn Off for Google Chrome
defaults write com.google.Chrome NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false
Turn Off for QuickTime Player X
defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false
Turn Off for Preview
defaults write com.apple.Preview NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false
You will want to relaunch whatever application you have disabled the feature for in order for changes to take effect.