Can you set a default tool selection?

Welcome to the forum @Winterdune

You can define a PRESET that includes the settings that you want or need.
Read about some of it in the online user guide.
https://userguides.dxo.com/photolab/en/menus-preferences-and-functions/
Note that the guide is evolving and its search functionality is limited.

You can then make your preset a default preset which will be applied when PhotoLab sees an image for the very first time.

Presets come in two flavours: full and partial

  • Full presets define the settings of all tools. When a full preset is applied later on, all previous settings get overwritten.
  • Partial presets can be tuned to set a limited number of tools.
  • Search the forum for hints about how to edit presets.