WIN.INI is a basic
INI file that was used in versions of the
Microsoft Windows operating environment
In computer software, an operating environment or integrated applications environment is the environment in which users run application software. The environment consists of a user interface provided by an applications manager and usually an app ...
up to
Windows 3.11 to store basic settings at boot time. By default, all font, communications drivers, wallpaper, screen saver, and language settings were stored in WIN.INI by
Windows 3.x. Many of these settings were honored in
Windows 9x
Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS, both of which were updated in su ...
, although the files had begun to be phased out in favor of the
Windows registry
The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the Microsoft Windows operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry. The kernel, device drivers, services, Security Accounts Manager, and ...
.
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
still acknowledged some entries in the WIN.INI file to provide backwards compatibility with older 16-bit applications. However, when a fresh install of XP is performed, the WIN.INI file created is initially blank, and in
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
and
Windows 7
Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...
the WIN.INI file was removed entirely.
Prior to Windows 3.0, it was not uncommon for applications to store their configuration settings inside WIN.INI (via ). With the release of
Windows 3.0
Windows 3.0 is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, launched in 1990. It features a new graphical user interface (GUI) where applications are represented as clickable icons, as opposed to the list of file names seen in its predeces ...
in 1990, Microsoft introduced the concept of "private" INI files (i.e. ), and some new
application programming interface calls so that applications could store their settings in their own files.
Today Microsoft recommends using other methods for storing settings.
Editing
Microsoft bundles two specialized editors for core
configuration file
In computing, configuration files (commonly known simply as config files) are files used to configure the parameters and initial settings for some computer programs. They are used for user applications, server processes and operating system ...
s (such as WIN.INI,
SYSTEM.INI,
CONFIG.SYS, and
AUTOEXEC.BAT) with its operating systems.
Sysedit is an
MDI text editor
A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be ...
that opens all of those files simultaneously, available in all versions of Windows since Windows 3.x (until Windows 7).
MSConfig, included with Windows 98 and above except Windows 2000,
[ MSConfig] is a simpler application that allows a user to enable and disable drivers and applications from being loaded at startup by the aforementioned files and the Run, RunEx, and RunOnce registry keys.
WIN.INI and
SYSTEM.INI are included in modern versions of Windows for 16-bit application support. 16-bit applications may display an error if these 2 files do not exist in C:\Windows.
See also
*
Make Compatible
References
Windows files
Configuration files
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