I am new to Notes, and it seems bizarre that I cannot find the answer
to such a simple question:

How does Notes find its NOTES.INI? I identified the following ways so
far:

command line: notes.exe =<path to notes.ini>
presumably highest precedence?

registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lotus\Notes\8.0\NotesIniPath
Works even for version 8.5 although it says 8.0

registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lotus\Notes\Installer\VDIR_INI
References only directory, "notes.ini" as file name is implied. Seems
to be used as template if NotesIniPath is gone.

I got yet another case, where notes.ini is in the directory pointed to
by VDIR_DATA, but that may be pure coincidence, I could not test it.

Does anyone have a clear answer?

TIA,

Arno

On Fri, 15 May 2009 09:42:10 -0700 (PDT), Arno
<aschoedl@think-cell.com> wrote:

>I am new to Notes, and it seems bizarre that I cannot find the answer
>to such a simple question:
>
>How does Notes find its NOTES.INI? I identified the following ways so
>far:
>
>command line: notes.exe =<path to notes.ini>
>presumably highest precedence?
>
>registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lotus\Notes\8.0\NotesIniPath
>Works even for version 8.5 although it says 8.0
>
>registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lotus\Notes\Installer\VDIR_INI
>References only directory, "notes.ini" as file name is implied. Seems
>to be used as template if NotesIniPath is gone.
>
>I got yet another case, where notes.ini is in the directory pointed to
>by VDIR_DATA, but that may be pure coincidence, I could not test it.
>
>Does anyone have a clear answer?
>
>TIA,
>
>Arno

For someone new to Notes your question is actually rather unusual.
I've been working with Notes for 15 years and never heard that
question asked. Are you a developer looking to programmatically
interrogate the file?

The exact location of the notes.ini will vary on whether Notes has
been installed as single user or multi user and what version of
windows has been used.  It should still boil down to program or data
directory though.

The notes icon can be edited as you suggested to specify the path,
though generally this shouldn't be necessary. 

Probably doesn't help you much :-(

Have you tried posting to:
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd85forum.nsf/DateAllThreadedweb?OpenView