Widget Default Values

https://justintadlock.com/archives/2009/05/26/the-complete-guide-to-creating-widgets-in-wordpress-28

Thanks for the link, but it looks like that just sets up the default values in the form. If the user doesn’t then click the “save” button, those defaults won’t be saved and the widget will still be configured with blank values.

Is there any way to store default values without having the user save the widget? In the method used prior to 2.8, you could put the widget’s defaults in the options table upon plugin activation.