Where the file is
Beside the program. Same folder, nothing hidden.
Run the program once, then look in the folder you ran it from. The settings file will be there next to the executable.
It carries the same name as the program with an .ini extension. Windows recognises it as an ordinary configuration file and offers to open it in Notepad, which tells you something useful on its own. This is a plain text settings file of the oldest and simplest kind, not a database and not anything proprietary.
It is also extremely small. A few lines of settings, nothing more. There is no cache, no history and no log hiding in it.
Why this matters more than it sounds
A settings file beside the program is what makes the whole thing genuinely portable.
Copy the folder to a USB stick and your setup goes with it. Your hotkey, your speed, your loop count, all present on whatever machine you plug into. Nothing has to be installed and nothing is left behind on the host computer. That is the practical meaning of portable, and it is covered further on the portable page.
It also means the reverse is true, and this catches people out.
Two copies in two folders keep two separate sets of settings. Change your hotkey in the copy on your desktop and the copy on your USB stick still has the old one. There is no shared configuration anywhere. Each folder is its own installation.
Resetting everything
Delete the settings file. Every preference returns to default the next time you run the program.
This is the fastest fix when something behaves strangely. A hotkey that will not stick, a speed setting that seems to be ignored, a toolbar that will not go back to normal. Close the program, delete the file, open it again.
You lose only your preferences. Your saved recordings are separate files in whatever folder you put them in, and deleting the settings file does not touch them.
When settings will not save
Almost always a permissions problem, and almost always the same cause.
If you put the program somewhere Windows protects, it may be unable to write beside itself. Program Files is the usual culprit. Windows blocks ordinary programs from writing there, so your preferences are set, and then quietly lost when you close the program.
The fix is to move it. Put the executable in a normal folder inside your documents, or on your desktop, or on a USB drive. Anywhere your user account can write freely.
A second cause is running the program from inside a compressed archive. Some people open the download and run it straight out of the ZIP viewer without extracting first. In that state there is no real folder to write to. Extract it properly and the problem disappears.
If a hotkey specifically is not sticking, the hotkeys page covers the other possible causes, including conflicts with other applications.
There is no installed version to worry about
You may have seen a setup installer offered for this program. It is worth being clear about what that is.
The setup downloads circulating in this niche install a different vendor's product, not this one. This program has no installer of its own that we can find in working order. It is one executable and the settings file beside it, and that is the whole of it.
That is good news for this page. There is no second location to check, no user profile folder, and no per-machine configuration. Everything is in the folder you put the program in. What the setup downloads actually are is covered on the with editor page, and removing anything you installed by mistake is on the uninstall page.
What is not in the settings file
Your recordings are not in it. Those are separate files that you save yourself, wherever you choose.
Your compiled macros are not in it either. Those are standalone programs sitting wherever you put them.
And nothing about your activity is in it. It holds preferences, not history. The program does not keep a log of what you recorded or when you played it.
A note on the option that used to exist
The program once had a setting to turn the TinyTask INI file off entirely. It was there for people who wanted one executable and nothing else on disk.
That option was removed in a later release. The file is now always created. It is a small trade, and it is worth knowing about only because you may still find old advice telling you to disable it. That advice no longer applies.
Frequently asked questions
In a small settings file in the same folder as the executable. Not in the registry, and not in a hidden system location.
Close the program, delete the settings file from its folder, and open it again. Every preference returns to default. Your saved recordings are unaffected.
Not for its settings. Those go to the ini file beside the executable, which is what makes the program genuinely portable.
Because it cannot write to the folder it is running from. Move the executable out of Program Files, or out of a ZIP viewer, into a normal folder you own.
Yes. Copy the whole folder, program and settings file together. Your preferences come with it.
No. Each folder has its own settings file and its own preferences. Changing one does not change the other.
Windows treats it as a standard configuration file and opens it in Notepad, so it is a plain text file. We have not documented what is inside it yet, so we are not telling you which values to change. Everything in it can be set from Prefs anyway, including the toolbar options on the custom toolbar page.
The same name as the program, with an ini extension. It appears in the folder after you run the program.