saving R GUI preferences as default

Question

I am trying to save my GUI preferences and have them used as the default when I open R. I'm using R 3.0.1, the 64-bit version in Windows.

I went to 'edit' then 'GUI preferences...' and changed them. I chose the 'save' button, and saved the GUI preferences file as 'Rconfig' to the /etc file where the programs are stored.

Unfortunately, this Rconfig is not the default file that R is using for the GUI preferences. Every time I open R, I have go to the 'GUI preferences...' menu and reopen my 'Rconfig' file.

What else do I need to do to have my saved GUI settings open as default?

Answer 1

As ?Rconsole points out:

There are system copies of these files in ‘R_HOME\etc’. Users can have personal copies of the files: these are looked for in the location given by the environment variable R_USER. The system files are read only if a corresponding personal file is not found.

If the environment variable R_USER is not set, the R system sets it to HOME if that is set (stripping any trailing slash), otherwise to the Windows ‘personal’ directory, otherwise to {HOMEDRIVE}{HOMEPATH} if HOMEDRIVE and HOMEDRIVE are both set otherwise to the working directory. This is as described in the file ‘rw-FAQ’.

So start by checking e.g. what Sys.getenv("R_USER") is set to and check for an "Rconsole" file there and keep going until you find the offending file.