SW system settings file location?

[mbiasotti]

Does anyone know where the SolidWorks stores (path) the System Settings file on Windows 10?

[zxys001]

Hi Mark,...as in, the SW registry? What are you trying to find?

[mattpeneguy]

Hi Mark,...as in, the SW registry? What are you trying to find?

Yeah, AFAIK all those settings are in the registry. To back them up, and restore them you can use the Copy Settings Wizard, which just puts all those keys in a text file wherever you want to store it (default is \user\documents). To be clear, using that tool has messed my settings up requiring me to delete and recreate my Solidworks registry entry when I used it after updating SW...So, only ever use that tool for the same year of SW.
I'm sure Mark knows all this, so I'm confused as to what he's asking exactly too.

[mbiasotti]

Thanks Matt - I didn't realize that it writes to the registry. We are having issues with our new deployment of SW2021 here at Sarcos in that user's settings are not being saved upon restart of SW. It was an admin install and our company PC's are extremely locked down due to our work with the DOD.

-M

[mbiasotti]

All - any idea what key in the registry the system setting are being saved?

[SPerman]

You can open one of the settings file with a text editor and it will show you all of the changes and where they are written. It is all in HKCU (Current User.)

Code: Select all

REGEDIT4
;SolidWorks Copy Settings Wizard

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\General]
"Thumbnail graphics"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS 2020]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS 2020\Animator]
"Manual Key Background Color"=dword:00ebebeb
"Timeline Text Color"=dword:00666666
"Timeline Tick Color"=dword:00666666
"Timeline Background Invalid Color"=dword:00cccccc
"Timeline Background Solved Color"=dword:0080ffff
"Timeline Background Bad Solve Color"=dword:000000ff
"Hidden Child Color"=dword:00999999
"Master Color"=dword:00ffffff
"Physical Simulation Color"=dword:00ffffff
"Viewpoint Color"=dword:00ffffff
"Suppressed Viewpoint Color"=dword:00999999
"Active Camera Change Color"=dword:004aadce
"Captured Change Color"=dword:0000ffff
"Solved Change Color"=dword:0033cc33
"Presentation Change Color"=dword:0000a6ff
"Visual Change Color"=dword:00ff00ff
"Solving Change Color"=dword:00ff0000
"Light or Camera Change Color"=dword:00ffff00
"Normal Key Color"=dword:00ff0000
"Suppressed Key Color"=dword:00999999

....

[mattpeneguy]

I believe I renamed HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks and Solidworks recreated everything to go back to original settings when I relaunched it. It's been a while since I've messed with it. It would probably be best to get your VAR involved because anytime you root around in the registry you can cause problems.
Also, I'm on Windows 7 here, so, I'm not 100% sure that registry key is the same for Windows 10.

[Frederick_Law]

"Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\"

[mattpeneguy]

"Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\"

Yes there's user settings there, too.

[bnemec]

Thanks Matt - I didn't realize that it writes to the registry. We are having issues with our new deployment of SW2021 here at Sarcos in that user's settings are not being saved upon restart of SW. It was an admin install and our company PC's are extremely locked down due to our work with the DOD.

-M

That sounds like the clues to me.

"User settings being reset on restart." IIRC that's an option that can be set in the admin image settings tool. Really hoping someone with more experience with admin images can correct or expand on that for us.

[AlexB]

That sounds like the clues to me.

"User settings being reset on restart." IIRC that's an option that can be set in the admin image settings tool. Really hoping someone with more experience with admin images can correct or expand on that for us.

You're correct. It's possible for the Admin to lock down certain settings that cannot be changed ("Lock" column). The way I understand the other column, where it's marked "Apply" will apply these settings each time the user restarts Solidworks.

To modify this, I would hope that the Admin could modify the settings file and redeploy that.

The below settings are accessed via the options editor that is used to configure the admin installs.