title: where to put initialization files in windows
body: <p>I am looking for an acceptable starting point for placing applications settings in a Windows machine.  I have more than one application.  for personal reasons, I wouldn't like to use the registry: I prefer plain text initialization files (.ini).  I also don't feel like holding the files in the same directory as the executables, the ideal situation allows me to keep them somewhere generic where users or system administrators are allowed to write.</p>
  
  <p>right, I'm not a windows user, my first guess would be <code>$HOME/.my_company_name</code> and <code>/etc/my_company_name</code>, but is there something conceptually equivalent to these places in Windows?</p>
  
  <p>just looking into the <code>SET</code> output and guessing:</p>
  
  <pre>
  %APPDATA%
  %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\Local Settings
  %SYSTEMROOT%
  </pre>
  
  <p>by the way: I still must check whether these variables still exist from within a windows service...</p>