Miscellaneous

Initialization files, also known as INI files are commonly used as configuration files in Windows. In earlier versions of Windows, INI files were very common for storing both Windows and application settings. In more recent versions, Windows and applications have moved to using the Registry for storing configuration data. However INI files are still used for storing data and are very useful in some situations.

INI files are basically text files with the ".ini" file extension, making them very simple to work with, and view. These files are written in a specific format containing components called sections, keys, and values. Below is an example of the structure of an INI file:

[MyProduct]
InstallFolder=C:\MyFolder\ApplicationX
ProductKey=890765

[MyProduct] is the section of INI file, InstallFolder and ProductKey are keys and "C:\MyFolder\ApplicationX" and 890765 are key values.

 

The simple example above illustrates the structure of an INI file. Each INI file can contain any number of sections containing any number of keys and values, allowing you to store large amounts of configuration data.

Tip: Setup Factory contains a category of INI file actions that can be used to both create and modify INI files.