diff --git a/libexec/rc/rc.conf b/libexec/rc/rc.conf
index 20f0a6375a9e..2fa3b676cb38 100644
--- a/libexec/rc/rc.conf
+++ b/libexec/rc/rc.conf
@@ -61,8 +61,8 @@ varmfs_flags="-S"	# Extra mount options for the mfs /var
 mfs_type="auto"		# "md", "tmpfs", "auto" to prefer tmpfs with md as fallback
 populate_var="AUTO"	# Set to YES to always (re)populate /var, NO to never
 cleanvar_enable="YES" 	# Clean the /var directory
-var_run_enable="NO" 	# Save/restore /var/run structure at shutdown/reboot
-var_run_autosave="NO" 	# Only restore /var/run structure at shutdown/reboot
+var_run_enable="YES" 	# Save/restore /var/run structure at shutdown/reboot
+var_run_autosave="YES" 	# Only restore /var/run structure at shutdown/reboot
 			# The user is expected to issue service var_run save to
 			# manually save the /var/run mtree
 var_run_mtree="/var/db/mtree/BSD.var-run.mtree"
diff --git a/libexec/rc/rc.d/var_run b/libexec/rc/rc.d/var_run
index daff06ce1a3f..bf8f0cb737b4 100755
--- a/libexec/rc/rc.d/var_run
+++ b/libexec/rc/rc.d/var_run
@@ -17,11 +17,6 @@ stop_cmd="_var_run_stop"
 
 load_rc_config $name
 
-# Set defaults
-: ${var_run_enable:="NO"}
-: ${var_run_mtree:="/var/db/mtree/BSD.var-run.mtree"}
-: ${var_run_autosave:="YES"}
-
 _var_run_load() {
 	test -f ${var_run_mtree} &&
 		mtree -U -i -q -f ${var_run_mtree} -p /var/run > /dev/null