# Conficguration files

Notepad++ is configure using XML files exclusively. This technical choice makes Notepad++ independent from the Windows® registry and avoids any encoding issues when storing and retrieving non-ASCII text like in user interface labels or find history.

These files are stored in either:

- The instalation folder, if the latter also has a `doLocalConf.xml` file and if storage is local.
- %APPDATA%\Notepad++ if `doLocalConf.xml` is not there and storage is local.
- In the cloud, if you have access to the apopriate remote accounts and if you have chosen so in cloud usage

For a complete list of configuration files, many of which are optional, please refer to Configuration files. The most important ones are:

config.xml
  various user interface settings, plugin windows positions, find/replace history, backup policy...
langs.xml
  characteristics - mainly keyword lists - of built-in languages
nativeLang.xml
  the current localisattion for almost all items in Notepad++ user interface
stylers.xml
  colour and font data for all styles for all built-in languages, plus some general aspects like line numbers.