diff --git a/src/app/atom.coffee b/src/app/atom.coffee
index 69c648638..6b7b922a9 100644
--- a/src/app/atom.coffee
+++ b/src/app/atom.coffee
@@ -15,12 +15,6 @@ window.atom =
   getLoadSettings: ->
     remote.getCurrentWindow().loadSettings
 
-  getPathToOpen: ->
-    @getLoadSettings().pathToOpen
-
-  setPathToOpen: (pathToOpen) ->
-    @getLoadSettings().pathToOpen = pathToOpen
-
   getPackageState: (name) ->
     @packageStates[name]
 
@@ -232,15 +226,16 @@ window.atom =
     throw new Error("sendMessageToBrowserProcess no longer works for #{name}")
 
   getWindowStatePath: ->
-    if @windowMode is 'config'
-      filename = 'config'
-    else if @windowMode is 'editor' and @getPathToOpen()
-      shasum = crypto.createHash('sha1')
-      shasum.update(@getPathToOpen())
-      filename = "editor-#{shasum.digest('hex')}"
-    else
-      filename = 'undefined'
+    switch @windowMode
+      when 'config'
+        filename = 'config'
+      when 'editor'
+        {initialPath} = @getLoadSettings()
+        if initialPath
+          sha1 = crypto.createHash('sha1').update(initialPath).digest('hex')
+          filename = "editor-#{sha1}"
 
+    filename ?= 'undefined'
     fsUtils.join(config.userStoragePath, filename)
 
   setWindowState: (keyPath, value) ->
diff --git a/src/app/window.coffee b/src/app/window.coffee
index f4e990524..8a033b0a7 100644
--- a/src/app/window.coffee
+++ b/src/app/window.coffee
@@ -113,12 +113,12 @@ window.deserializeEditorWindow = ->
   Project = require 'project'
   Git = require 'git'
 
-  pathToOpen = atom.getPathToOpen()
+  {initialPath} = atom.getLoadSettings()
 
   windowState = atom.getWindowState()
 
   atom.packageStates = windowState.packageStates ? {}
-  window.project = new Project(pathToOpen)
+  window.project = new Project(initialPath)
   window.rootView = deserialize(windowState.rootView) ? new RootView
 
   $(rootViewParentSelector).append(rootView)
diff --git a/src/atom-window.coffee b/src/atom-window.coffee
index 2eb984723..8deceb28c 100644
--- a/src/atom-window.coffee
+++ b/src/atom-window.coffee
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ BrowserWindow = require 'browser-window'
 dialog = require 'dialog'
 ipc = require 'ipc'
 path = require 'path'
+fs = require 'fs'
 
 module.exports =
 class AtomWindow
@@ -13,19 +14,25 @@ class AtomWindow
     @browserWindow = new BrowserWindow show: false, title: 'Atom'
     @handleEvents()
 
-    @browserWindow.loadSettings = {pathToOpen, bootstrapScript, resourcePath, exitWhenDone}
+    initialPath = pathToOpen
+    try
+      initialPath = path.dirname(pathToOpen) if fs.statSync(pathToOpen).isFile()
+
+    @browserWindow.loadSettings = {initialPath, bootstrapScript, resourcePath, exitWhenDone}
     @browserWindow.once 'window:loaded', => @loaded = true
     @browserWindow.loadUrl "file://#{resourcePath}/static/index.html"
 
-  getPathToOpen: ->
-    @browserWindow.loadSettings.pathToOpen
+    @openPath(pathToOpen)
+
+  getInitialPath: ->
+    @browserWindow.loadSettings.initialPath
 
   containsPath: (pathToCheck) ->
     if not pathToCheck
       false
-    else if pathToCheck is @getPathToOpen()
+    else if pathToCheck is @getInitialPath()
       true
-    else if pathToCheck.indexOf(path.join(@getPathToOpen(), path.sep)) is 0
+    else if pathToCheck.indexOf(path.join(@getInitialPath(), path.sep)) is 0
       true
     else
       false