title: Changing the default folder in Emacs
body: <p>I am fairly new to Emacs and I have been trying to figure out how to change the default folder for <kbd>C-x C-f</kbd> on start-up. For instance when I first load Emacs and hit <kbd>C-x C-f</kbd> its default folder is <code>C:\emacs\emacs-21.3\bin</code>, but I would rather it be the desktop. I believe there is some way to customize the <code>.emacs</code> file to do this, but I am still unsure what that is.</p>
  
  <p>Update: There are three solutions to the problem that I found to work, however I believe solution 3 is Windows only.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Solution 1: Add <code>(cd "C:/Users/Name/Desktop")</code> to the <code>.emacs</code> file</p></li>
  <li><p>Solution 2: Add <code>(setq default-directory "C:/Documents and Settings/USER_NAME/Desktop/")</code> to the <code>.emacs</code> file</p></li>
  <li><p>Solution 3: Right click the Emacs short cut, hit properties and change the start in field to the desired directory.</p></li>
  </ul>