I get the impression that a lot of GUI parameters, when using NetBeans, can only be set using the palette. Anyway, I have a method bound to the event of clicking on a JMenu, that prompts for a password and, if authenticated, enables all the JMenuItems on that JMenu, otherwise, it leaves them disabled.
So I set each JMenuItem to be disabled, by using the design tab, clicking on each one, and clicking the Enabled checkbox in the Properties section. This way, each time I run the application and the GUI loads, the beginning property is that they're all disabled. This stays that way for the duration of the session, and stays even if I close and restart netbeans. It DOESN'T stay, however, if I reboot the OS. Is there a preferred way to set the opening settings in this case?