Default (computer science)
A default, in computer science, refers to a setting or a value automatically assigned to a software application, computer program or device, outside of user intervention. Such settings are also called presets, especially for electronic devices. The Oxford English Dictionary dates this usage to the mid-1960s, as a variant of the older meaning of "failure in performance".
Default values are generally intended to make a device (or control) usable "out of the box". A common setting, or at least a usable setting, is typically assigned. In many contexts, such an assignment makes the choice of that setting or value more likely (the so-called default effect)
Examples
Application software preferences
One use of default in temperateness is for initial settings for application software. For example, the first time a user runs an application it may suggest that the user's delivery address is in the United States. This default might be appropriate if more users of that application were in the US than any other country. If the user selected a new country, it would override the default, and perhaps become the default for the next time the application is used on that computer or by that user. Changing the default for the next run would involve storing user information in some place, such as in cookies on the user's computer for an Internet application.