This Article Covers:
What are .INI File?
INI files are configuration files used by software to initialise program settings, hence the name INI, which comes from initialisation.
INI files contain structured text that instructs a software how to operate. INI files were mainly used in earlier versions of Windows and are still used for backwards compatibility but now, many programs also use XML files which serve the same purpose.
Although , CFG, CONF, and TXT have the same format, they are some of the other file types used by configuration files.
What are INI Files Used for
INI files can contain a few lines of text or hundreds of lines of texts, depending on the software responsible for creating it. For instance, consider an INI file created by a game. When you run the game, the INI file tells the game which settings to load.
Be it language, graphics, or some other settings. You can change these settings in-game or by editing the INI file. Always backup the INI file when editing it because in some cases after altering the INI file, the software may not run properly.
Programs that can Open INI Files
- Microsoft Wordpad
- Microsoft Word
- Notepad
- Notepad++
How to Open INI Files
From the above list, you can guess that INI files can be opened with text editor applications. Opening INI files is very simple, and a simple double-click of your mouse will open it with notepad. You can also use the above listed programs to open INI files.
If you want to convert the INI file into another text-based format such as HTML or TXT, you can use Notepad++.
Remember, if you convert an INI file into another file format, the software will not detect it, rather it will look for the INI file with the same name.
While trying to edit INI files, if you get the Access Denied error, simply run the text-editor application with administrator privileges to edit the file.
