james1095:
I've always found the auto-loading of the last used sketch to be extremely annoying and found this while looking for a way to disable it. Since I normally leave the software open until I'm finished and then when I load it I want it to open up with a new blank sketch. Is it possible to change the default behavior? The Arduino has done a lot of great things but man the software is awful.
I totally agree with you.
Changing the line "preferences.readonly=false" to "preferences.readonly=true" in the preferences.txt file solved this issue for me. And, with this solution, there is no observable lag when the IDE starts, unlike other solutions.
Also, don't forget this edit; "last.sketch.count=0" before making the preferences file read-only.