Gnucash preferences not being stored/read

[John Ralls]

On Apr 27, 2010, at 7:25 AM, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:

> 
>> Hi.
>> 
>> I have a problem with Gnucash for Windows 2.2.9 - remembering any of my preferences (e.g. recently used files, tips window, new accounts list set up window etc.). I understand that these settings are stored under C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\.gconf\ . I can see the folder and the settings relevant to Gnucash in it but Gnucash does not appear to be reading this. If I delete the \.gconf folder I find that it does not make any difference - it is not re-created at application start up time, nor if I change any settings from the preferences dialogue box or even if I uninstall/re-install Gnucash again after deleting the folder.
>> 
>> Is this folder definitely where Gnucash stores preferences? When does Gnucash normally create this folder? How would I get Gnucash to remember my preferences again?
>> 
>> Many thanks.
>> Mark
> 
> I have this problem too, but I know WHY in my case (and how I could fix it)
> 
> Mark, what is your Windows user ID? (what you use to log in to Windows)
> That can be the problem as there are characters legal in a Windows name that are not legal in one of the "outside" things that GnuCash uses. Your log in ID gets used as part of the path name. The GnuCash team can't fix that as doesn't "own" that part and the "politics"* of the open source world might be preventing the issue from being addressed.
> 
> Michael
> 
> * In this case, that some of the open source world is hostile to Windows -- the problem wouldn't arise in the Linux world as those characters then not legal in a name. I'm in the unfortunate reverse position where I can't feel that I can recommend (organizational) use of an app unless it can run under Windows.
> _______________________________________________

Umm, what characters are causing trouble? It's far more likely that the fault is in Gnucash, as the routines for making filenames are very low-level and involve Glib whose developers absolutely do support MSWndows. In fact, could you test it with 2.3.12? I rewrote some really ugly filepath code a couple of months ago...

I'm under the impression that on MSWindows, Gnucash uses the Registry rather than GConf. But I stay away from MSWindows as much as I can, so I don't know for sure. Perhaps one of the devs more familiar with it can chime in.

Regards,
John Ralls