Not sure exactly what you are doing with the code because you did not post it, but you can create a window with checkboxes:

string $window = `window -width 50`;
columnLayout -adjustableColumn true;
checkBox;
checkBox -v true;
showWindow $window;
window -edit -widthHeight 40 60 $window;

and use the "-v true" parameter to default one as true. Regarding "resetting", if you are resetting within your own
code, you could just re-draw the window if necessary.
That is the best answer I know of without actually
seeing the code.