.ini files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter
  • Start date Start date
You can open notepad, then use that to browse to your chosen .ini file and
open it to see what is in it. Set notepad to see all files before searching
for the one you want. Otherwise it will just find .txt files.

Don't change anything before you close notepad. If notepad asks if you want
to save changes when you close it, say NO - unless you really want to
implement changes.

NOTE: Many .ini files are hidden so you will have to adjust for the fact
prior to looking for the file with notepad. And DO NOT change the file
extension association to make an .ini file open with notepad when you
double-click on the file. You may break whatever application uses that
particular .ini file.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Peter said:
How do you read an .ini file? Wordpad?
Click to expand...


They are normally just plain text files, so any text editor such as Notepad,
will read them. You can even open them in a word-processing program like
Word, although there's no need to.

Could I get into trouble
looking into one?
Click to expand...


No, but if you use a word processor, be very careful not to save the file,
since saving it, even if you make no changes, will probably save it in the
word processor's standard format, not as plain text. That will make the file
unreadable.
 
Richard Urban said:
NOTE: Many .ini files are hidden so you will have to adjust for the fact
prior to looking for the file with notepad. And DO NOT change the file
extension association to make an .ini file open with notepad when you
double-click on the file. You may break whatever application uses that
particular .ini file.
Click to expand...

Apps that use *.ini files rarely, in my experience, use the
association mechanism. That is, you wouldn't usually open an
application by double-clicking its *.ini file. Rather, you'd start the
app by double-clicking a shortcut, or using a shortcut in the Start
menu, or by double-clicking on a document that is associated with the
app. The app, as part of starting up, would know that it needs to read
it's *.ini file, and would do that without the user taking any action.
 
Peter said:
How do you read an .ini file? Wordpad? Could I get into trouble looking into
one?
Click to expand...


..ini files are just basic text files. I'd view and/or save any changes
with a plain text editor tho like notepad.
 
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