Winboard Forum

Is there a config file I can edit to change the order of the "Specify Chess Server" dropdown list in the WinBoard Startup UI?

Also, can I change the WinBoard UI to default to "Use an Internet Chess Server"?

Options -> Add ICS brings up a window where you can edit the list of ICS. Make sure settings are saved afterwards.

You can configure WinBoard to start in other modes by editing the 'master' winboard.ini file in the WinBoard folder. This is the settings file that WinBoard consults first, but it contains options to redirect the saving (and reading) of settings to a user-dependent settings file int the user's AppData folder. This way it protects itself from overwriting when settings are saved. So what you write in there is persistent. But it might be overruled by things saved in the user settings file, which is read after most of the options in the master file.

But if you write an option there after the user settings file is read (i.e. after the /settingsFile option in the master file) it will always overrule the saved value (effectively turning it into a 'volatile' option with a default of your choosing). And if the option you want to affect was volatile in the first place (such as the ICS options) it doesn't matter at all where in the master settings file you write them, as these are not in the user settings file at all, and thus cannot be overruled.

So you could just add the lines to the master winboard.ini file:

/ics
/icshost=DOMAIN_NAME_OF_YOUR_PREFERRED_ICS
/icshelper=timeseal

This would suppress the startup dialog, and immediately start connected to the specified ICS. Note that you could also create a Windows shortcut to invoke WinBoard, with these options on the command line of the 'target', i.e.

C:\WinBoard-4.8.0\WinBoard\winboard.exe /ics /icshost=XXX /icshelper=timeseal

(Not sure if you could need the full pathname of the timeseal.exe file in that case.) Or you could put the options in a separate ini file, and then start WinBoard by dragging that file on top of the winboard.exe icon. Or you could put these options in a file that does not have a .ini extension in its name, but a .xop extension instead. Then you could also drag-drop it on top of winboard.exe, but it should be enough to just double-click it to start WinBoard. (As during installation the .xop file type would get associated with WinBoard.) So this would act as a 'home-brewn' shortcut.