ArcGIS Pro per-user installation ignores ConfigurationName and Configuration Folders Registry Keys

marco_vertigis — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 11:37:24 GMT

Hello,

While testing ArcGIS Pro with a per-user installation, I noticed behavior that appears different from what is documented regarding automatic configuration discovery.

According to the SDK documentation, ArcGIS Pro can automatically locate a .proConfigX configuration using the following registry keys:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\ESRI\ArcGISPro\Settings\Configuration Folders
HKLM\SOFTWARE\ESRI\ArcGISPro\Settings\ConfigurationName

Documentation:
https://doc.esri.com/en/arcgis-pro/latest/sdk/api-reference/conceptdocs/docs/ArcGIS-Pro-Registry-Keys.html

In my testing, ArcGIS Pro successfully recognizes these values when they are defined under HKLM. However, equivalent values placed under HKCU do not appear to be considered during startup.

This raises a few questions:

Is support for HKCU registry keys intentionally not implemented for configuration discovery?
Is there an alternative mechanism recommended for per-user deployments that need to automatically load a custom .proConfigX?
Are there any plans to support configuration discovery from the current-user registry hive in future releases?

At the moment, the only reliable approach I have found is to:

Deploy the .proConfigX file into the default user configuration location.
Launch ArcGIS Pro using a shortcut that explicitly specifies the /config:<ConfigurationName> command-line parameter.

Can anyone from Esri confirm whether this is the expected behavior for per-user installations, or if there is another supported approach?

Thank you.

topic ArcGIS Pro per-user installation ignores ConfigurationName and Configuration Folders Registry Keys in ArcGIS Pro SDK Questions

ArcGIS Pro per-user installation ignores ConfigurationName and Configuration Folders Registry Keys