I recently upgraded my laptop and created a new user in which KM auto runs at login. each time, though, the KM tutorial window opens. for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to make that stop…
There is no preference for that, so I’m not sure how it would happen unless you’ve accidentally setup a macro that triggers when Keyboard Maestro (the editor) launches.
You can always check the Engine.log file (menu Help ➤ Open Logs Folder) to see what macros have triggered recently, or you can choose menu View ➤ Sort by Macro Execution and then select the All Macros smart group to see what macros have triggered recently.
Other than that, I can’t think of anything that would cause the Tutorial window to reopen on launch.
I do have a macro that auto hides the editor 15 seconds after launch but that’s about it. I sync my macros via dropbox and I have the same set on each machine and only this new one exhibits this behavior.
do you think it could be a permissions issue?
Are you talking about the black Tutorial window, or the white Welcome to Keyboard Maestro window.
I just noticed with the Welcome window that it is not displaying properly in Yoesmite, you have to scroll to the bottom to see the checkbox that turns off showing it each time you launch. Perhaps that is the issue?
It’s the white welcome window… yes that’s the issue - it never dawned on me to scroll down 
check box unmarked and the issue now fixed.
thanks.
If I may, the problem is that the welcome screen is improperly formatted—the sidebar that used to float to the right of the "Welcome to Keyboard Maestro 6" section is now cleared below that and the checkbox to disable the window at startup overflows the window area:
Yes, its a 1 pixel difference in the way Yosemite renders the page. It will be fixed in the upcoming 6.4.8.