How to stop Safari reopen on last page

Tip how to turn this 'bug' into a 'feature':

A non-terminal way to change the behaviour of Safari (and Preview) is to swap the keyboard shortcut for option-command-Q and regular command-Q. It requires a bit of poking in the systems preferences but should also be do-able for the average iGranny.

Go to System Preferences, Keyboard, and then Keyboard Shortcuts.

Under Application Shortcuts, click "+" and add for Safari a new combination for Quit Safari (Choose under Menu title "Quit Safari", exactly like in the menu from Safari, and press 'option-command-Q" under Keyboard Shortcut). Do the same for "Quit and Close All Windows" but chosing command Q as keyboard shortcut.

Now the pre-Lion default behaviour is back, but allows you to use option-command-Q to keep your windows, if you so require. In contrast to the terminal-comand, this also shows you in the menu exactly which behaviour to expect with which keyboard shortcut. Which is as it should be for a feature.

why are people complicating the issue? ... just hit the little "X" button on the top left and then quit... when u reopen it will open the homepage... also "Option + Comman + Q" when closing... dont got to go to the terminal, or download another app or anything...

This thread is a top hit for searches such as "stop safari from opening old pages" on DuckDuckGo and"how to stop safari reopening in last page" in Bing. I noticed the solution to my problem was not listed here, so I am adding this reply.

My problem: I was searching for a Sega Saturn ROM for OpenEmu. I was unaware how shady such web sites catering to this market segment are. One site completely took over Safari. I could not adjust Safari preferences. I could not move off the adware scam tabs. I could not close the popup dialogs. I could not switch to a new window. Every time I opened Safari, it reopened the adware infected site.

The way to open Safari without opening your previous web pages is to hold the shift key while clicking the Safari icon. After that, I regained control of Safari. It started at my Top Sites pages. I could adjust Safari preferences and clear my history of the unwanted scam web sites.

alt(option)-command-Q quits program and all windows within it.... Snowleopard it was just command-q... but in lion command-Q just quits the program it does not discard all windows within the program.. it will take a while to get used to but its just one extra button.

There has to be something else going on. On the two systems that I have they do not behave the same way as yours is. You said that you have extensions turned off, do you have anything like Glims installed for Safari?

If you close all windows and you quit safari when open again it open what you configure because you haven't open windows when quit so you no using the feature..I mean which windows you want it to open if you haven't any.It can't open what you thinking is why the option to choose the new window to open..

System Preferences > General

Uncheck the "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps."

Job done!

Nope. That doesn't do the job. Sorry.

I have that setting unchecked, and I get the same kind of behavior for Terminal and Finder that the original author of this thread had with Safari.

And Option-Command-Q is not a reasonable solution, IMHO. We shouldn't have to use a non-standard sequence to close our apps, just to cause them the run the way they used to run in Snow Leopard, Leopard, Tiger, etc., without any three-fingered closing techniques.

Hmmm... I have a slight variation on the situation. I have an MBA (13 inch, MId 2011) with Lion 10.7.1 (11B2118) running Safari version 5.1 (7534.48.3) and it doesn't exhibit the reopening of the last page issue. My MBP on the other hand (13-inch, early 2011) with Lion 10.7.1 (11B26) running the same version of Safari DOES exhibit this annoying issue. I applied to terminal-based solution and it has solved the problem. Regardless, wondering why one computer running the same OS and browser as the other would have the problem but the other won't.

Could the slightly different nomenclature around the OS version mean anything?

I get the exact same situation as Lucavigg above.

Terminal tells me,

"Could not write domain /Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist; exiting

Also, like Lucavigg, I've had serious problems with permissions on my Documents folder since I clean installed Lion. Contacted AppleCare Support - they really weren't able to help on this one, although they suggested a few obvious things like repairing permissions.

I did find the BatChmod utility, which seemed to basically work for my Documents folder permissions problems.

Perhaps this utility will work on the aforementioned file in my Library prefs as well.

I'm seeing Safari re-open on boot with the last pages viewed, and no, the box "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps" isn't checked. It seems to have nothing to do with this issue. Good try, tho, leroydouglas.

I don't want to see the pages I last had open, I just want to see one tab with my homepage open when I boot up my computer. For some reason, even tho I turned Extensions off when I first started up Mac OS Lion, (and I never downloaded any extensions to begin with), it's acting like I have installed SafariRestore (judging by what that "extension" says it does).

Is Safari opening up when you boot by itself? There are many people reporting the same thing about Safari and it usually has to do with Lions feature to resume applications where they left off when closing them down, which is why leroydouglas suggested turning it off.

Since you have disabled extensions in Safari do you by chance had the add-on Glims installed in Safari?

Safari is opening up when I boot, yes, by itself. I unchecked the box leroydouglas suggested (a friend on another message board told me about it), but it has no effect. If Safari is open when I shut down the computer, when I next boot up, Safari re-opens to the same pages that were open when I turned the computer off. Restarting also sees Safari re-open as soon as the re-boot is complete.

Well, that stopped Safari from re-opening immediately on reboot, but it doesn't prevent Safari from opening with all previously open pages once you DO open Safari. In other words, I shut down with 3 tabs in Safari, and when I reopened Safari, all 3 of those tabs with the appropriate pages opened.

This is a feature I really don't need or want. I just want to see my home page on a single tab when I open Safari. I'll open new tabs as I need them each session. I shouldn't have to close all tabs before I shut down my computer; I'm shutting it down and it should be a given that I'm done with whatever browsing I was doing at the time.

Oh, and the box in the shut down confirm window is checked again. It doesn't stay unchecked.

No. I don't even know what Glims is. I've never downloaded an extension, and didn't even know of them until yesterday (after I installed Lion I saw it under Safari Preferences and imediately turned it off).