Is Mac OS X keeping constant track of my processes? I own a 13-inch Mid 2012 MacBook Pro with a 2.5GHz i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, running OS X 10.9.5. I came to notice a while ago, that after having forced a reboot (by holding down the ⌽ Power button) the system asks if you want to restore the windows that it previously had open.

I'm just baffled by this. Does this mean the system is keeping a constant track of everything I open and close? I mean, if it does, this surely has a performance impact (which I happen to have noticed actually).

My question is then, is there any sort of configuration that I can tinkle to make it stop doing this in the hopes of getting it run faster?
Simplified explanation: When an application is started, an entry is written to disk that says this app is currently active. When an application quits, that entry is removed. When the system starts and finds entries in this list, it's an indicator that the system crashed or did not shut down properly and it can offer to relaunch those apps for you. It takes virtually no practical overhead at all to track this.

Each application individually may also be tracking which documents you opened pretty much the same way and then reopen your documents when it is being launched. There's no need to "constantly track the state of everything", the system just needs to make a few notes here and there when key events happen (such as an application launching or quitting).