diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index bf1fdf9a0e..fabeffa393 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
     ```
     This option controls whether a column of all 0's and 1's is read as `integer`, or `logical` directly to avoid needing to change the type afterwards to `logical` or use `colClasses`. `0/1` is smaller and faster than `"TRUE"/"FALSE"`, which can make a significant difference to space and time the more `logical` columns there are. When the default's default changes to `TRUE` for `fread` we do not expect much impact since all arithmetic operators that are currently receiving 0's and 1's as type `integer` (think `sum()`) but instead could receive `logical`, would return exactly the same result on the 0's and 1's as `logical` type. However, code that is manipulating column types using `is.integer` or `is.logical` on `fread`'s result, could require change. It could be painful if `DT[(logical_column)]` (i.e. `DT[logical_column==TRUE]`) changed behaviour due to `logical_column` no longer being type `logical` but `integer`. But that is not the change proposed. The change is the other way around; i.e., a previously `integer` column holding only 0's and 1's would now be type `logical`. Since it's that way around, we believe the scope for breakage is limited. We think a lot of code is converting 0/1 integer columns to logical anyway, either using `colClasses=` or afterwards with an assign. For `fwrite`, the level of breakage depends on the consumer of the output file. We believe `0/1` is a better more standard default choice to move to. See notes below about improvements to `fread`'s sampling for type guessing, and automatic rereading in the rare cases of out-of-sample type surprises.
 
+
 These options are meant for temporary use to aid your migration, [#2652](https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/pull/2652). You are not meant to set them to the old default and then not migrate your code that is dependent on the default. Either set the argument explicitly so your code is not dependent on the default, or change the code to cope with the new default. Over the next few years we will slowly start to remove these options, warning you if you are using them, and return to a simple default. See the history of NEWS and NEWS.0 for past migrations that have, generally speaking, been successfully managed in this way. For example, at the end of NOTES for this version (below in this file) is a note about the usage of `datatable.old.unique.by.key` now warning, as you were warned it would do over a year ago. When that change was introduced, the default was changed and that option provided an option to restore the old behaviour. These `fread`/`fwrite` changes are even more cautious and not even changing the default's default yet. Giving you extra warning by way of this notice to move forward. And giving you a chance to object.
 
 #### NEW FEATURES
@@ -255,6 +256,9 @@ Was warning: set2key() will be deprecated in the next relase. Please use setinde
 Now error: set2key() is now deprecated. Please use setindex() instead.
 ```
 
+12. The option `datatable.showProgress` is no longer set to a default value when the package is loaded. Instead, the `default=` argument of `getOption` is used by both `fwrite` and `fread`. The default is the result of `interactive()` at the time of the call. Using `getOption` in this way is intended to be more helpful to users looking at `args(fread)` and `?fread`. 
+
+
 ### Changes in v1.10.4-3  (on CRAN 20 Oct 2017)
 
 1. Fixed crash/hang on MacOS when `parallel::mclapply` is used and data.table is merely loaded, [#2418](https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/issues/2418). Oddly, all tests including test 1705 (which tests `mclapply` with data.table) passed fine on CRAN. It appears to be some versions of MacOS or some versions of libraries on MacOS, perhaps. Many thanks to Martin Morgan for reporting and confirming this fix works. Thanks also to @asenabouth, Joe Thorley and Danton Noriega for testing, debugging and confirming that automatic parallelism inside data.table (such as `fwrite`) works well even on these MacOS installations. See also news items below for 1.10.4-1 and 1.10.4-2.
diff --git a/R/fread.R b/R/fread.R
index 29c98b495f..f0ac1aecc4 100644
--- a/R/fread.R
+++ b/R/fread.R
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-fread <- function(input="",file,sep="auto",sep2="auto",dec=".",quote="\"",nrows=Inf,header="auto",na.strings=getOption("datatable.na.strings","NA"),stringsAsFactors=FALSE,verbose=getOption("datatable.verbose",FALSE),skip="__auto__",select=NULL,drop=NULL,colClasses=NULL,integer64=getOption("datatable.integer64","integer64"), col.names, check.names=FALSE, encoding="unknown", strip.white=TRUE, fill=FALSE, blank.lines.skip=FALSE, key=NULL, index=NULL, showProgress=interactive(), data.table=getOption("datatable.fread.datatable",TRUE), nThread=getDTthreads(), logical01=getOption("datatable.logical01", FALSE), autostart=NA)
+fread <- function(input="",file,sep="auto",sep2="auto",dec=".",quote="\"",nrows=Inf,header="auto",na.strings=getOption("datatable.na.strings","NA"),stringsAsFactors=FALSE,verbose=getOption("datatable.verbose",FALSE),skip="__auto__",select=NULL,drop=NULL,colClasses=NULL,integer64=getOption("datatable.integer64","integer64"), col.names, check.names=FALSE, encoding="unknown", strip.white=TRUE, fill=FALSE, blank.lines.skip=FALSE, key=NULL, index=NULL, showProgress=getOption("datatable.showProgress",interactive()), data.table=getOption("datatable.fread.datatable",TRUE), nThread=getDTthreads(), logical01=getOption("datatable.logical01", FALSE), autostart=NA)
 {
   if (is.null(sep)) sep="\n"         # C level knows that \n means \r\n on Windows, for example
   else {
diff --git a/R/fwrite.R b/R/fwrite.R
index 914c23c2cd..c9576a385e 100644
--- a/R/fwrite.R
+++ b/R/fwrite.R
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ fwrite <- function(x, file="", append=FALSE, quote="auto",
            logicalAsInt=logical01,
            dateTimeAs = c("ISO","squash","epoch","write.csv"),
            buffMB=8, nThread=getDTthreads(),
-           showProgress=interactive(),
+           showProgress=getOption("datatable.showProgress", interactive()),
            verbose=getOption("datatable.verbose", FALSE)) {
   isLOGICAL = function(x) isTRUE(x) || identical(FALSE, x)  # it seems there is no isFALSE in R?
   na = as.character(na[1L]) # fix for #1725
diff --git a/man/fread.Rd b/man/fread.Rd
index fb75bd405b..3dabfb6377 100644
--- a/man/fread.Rd
+++ b/man/fread.Rd
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ col.names,
 check.names=FALSE, encoding="unknown",
 strip.white=TRUE, fill=FALSE, blank.lines.skip=FALSE,
 key=NULL, index=NULL,
-showProgress=interactive(),
+showProgress=getOption("datatable.showProgress", interactive()),
 data.table=getOption("datatable.fread.datatable", TRUE),
 nThread=getDTthreads(),
 logical01=getOption("datatable.logical01", FALSE),  # due to change to TRUE; see NEWS
diff --git a/man/fwrite.Rd b/man/fwrite.Rd
index 3fa8f7b38d..fbb9f5b406 100644
--- a/man/fwrite.Rd
+++ b/man/fwrite.Rd
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ fwrite(x, file = "", append = FALSE, quote = "auto",
   logicalAsInt = logical01,  # deprecated
   dateTimeAs = c("ISO","squash","epoch","write.csv"),
   buffMB = 8L, nThread = getDTthreads(),
-  showProgress = interactive(),
+  showProgress = getOption("datatable.showProgress", interactive()),
   verbose = getOption("datatable.verbose", FALSE))
 }
 \arguments{