Re: newbie question about .emacs initialization file

[John Paul Wallington]

"Edward Casey" <ejmn@cpinternet.com> writes:

> I recenty downloaded Gnu emacs for Windows (using Win 98). Since Dos-based
> systems allow only three characters for a file-name suffix, how do I get
> lisp functions, etc. into the environment during loading? Do I have to do
> a load-file after emacs is up and running? What is the init file name
> under MS Windows?

You can have a .emacs file in Windows 98.  It can be named either
_emacs or .emacs, and should be placed in your "home" directory.  If
you have both files in your home directory, Emacs will load the .emacs
file and ignore _emacs.  Your home directory is where the HOME
configuration variable tells Emacs it is.

See
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/faq3.html#startup
for more details.