Steven in OC wrote:
When I close a window (e.g., Chrome, Safari, Finder), I am suddenly losing the context (i.e., open tabs, open documents). This means that when I re-open the window, the browser has lost all tabs and is on the start page. The Finder is in the default start place (Macintosh HD).
I don't know how this happened, but I want to get it back to the standard behavior, where the context is saved and appears when the window is re-opened.
I am running macOS Big Sur 11.6.5. And yes, I've already tried re-installing the OS, and that didn't help.
There is nothing to help, because it is working as designed.
As VikingOSX explained, in some applications, the red button causes the application to quit.
That is NOT the case with applications that can have multiple windows - like Safari, Chrome or Finder, that you mentioned.
I am writing this in Safari, and this window has a few tabs, including this one:
I also have 5 more windows, with several tabs each.
If I were to click the red button now (besides not finishing this reply...) I would close and eliminate all the tabs in it; but Safar would still be running, with the 5 windows. There would be no way to get these tabs back, unless I immediately went to History->Reopen Last Closed Window. After that, it's gone.