This answer specifically address the question of how/where to find Emacs' user-init-file on Microsoft Windows.

HOME and Startup Directories on MS-Windows

Here is the relavent section from the Emacs manual (available via C-h i) Emacs > Microsoft Windows > Windows Home

The Windows equivalent of HOME is the user-specific application data directory. The actual location depends on the Windows version; ... C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming on Windows Vista and later ... If this directory does not exist or cannot be accessed, Emacs falls back to C:\ as the default value of ‘HOME’.

This location is stored in the environment variable that windows refers to as %APPDATA%. See this question and answer on superuser

You can try to find the location of your user-init-file by doing C-h v and then user-init-file [RET]. You will see an output similar to

~/.emacs

On Windows this isn't particularly helpful. We can now find out what Emacs means by ~ doing one of the following:

C-x C-f > ~ > [backspace] The echo area at the bottom of your Emacs screen will expand to show you what Emacs currently consider to be HOME. (Note that this works on Windows and according to @NickD doesn't work on GNU/Linux)

OR more generally (quoting from the Emacs manual)

You can always find out what Emacs thinks is your home directory’s location by typing C-x d ~/ <RET>. This should present the list of files in the home directory, and show its full name on the first line. Likewise, to visit your init file, type C-x C-f ~/.emacs <RET> (assuming the file’s name is .emacs).

Setting up the init.el on Windows

Instead of keeping a .emacs file most emacs users now use an init.el file stored in your emacs-user-directory. This directory defaults to ~/.emacs.d and in your case %APPDATA%/.emacs.d/. Assuming you don't already have a .emacs file stored in %APPDATA%/ You can now go ahead and create an init.el file inside the .emacs.d directory. Put some sample configuration in your init.el file and see if Emacs picks it up when you re-start Emacs. Also see this this anwer on Emacs Stackexchange.

Happy Hacking :)

This answer specifically address the question of how/where to find Emacs' user-init-file on Microsoft Windows.

HOME and Startup Directories on MS-Windows

Here is the relavent section from the Emacs manual (available via C-h i) Emacs > Microsoft Windows > Windows Home

The Windows equivalent of HOME is the user-specific application data directory. The actual location depends on the Windows version; ... C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming on Windows Vista and later ... If this directory does not exist or cannot be accessed, Emacs falls back to C:\ as the default value of ‘HOME’.

This location is stored in the environment variable that windows refers to as %APPDATA%. See this question and answer on superuser

You can try to find the location of your user-init-file by doing C-h v and then user-init-file [RET]. You will see an output similar to

~/.emacs

On Windows this isn't particularly helpful. We can now find out what Emacs means by ~ doing one of the following:

C-x C-f > ~ > [backspace] The echo area at the bottom of your Emacs screen will expand to show you what Emacs currently consider to be HOME. (Note that this works on Windows and according to @NickD doesn't work on GNU/Linux)

OR more generally (quoting from the Emacs manual)

You can always find out what Emacs thinks is your home directory’s location by typing C-x d ~/ <RET>. This should present the list of files in the home directory, and show its full name on the first line. Likewise, to visit your init file, type C-x C-f ~/.emacs <RET> (assuming the file’s name is .emacs).

Setting up the init.el on Windows

Instead of keeping a .emacs file most emacs users now use an init.el file stored in your user-emacs-directory. This directory defaults to ~/.emacs.d and in your case %APPDATA%/.emacs.d/. Assuming you don't already have a .emacs file stored in %APPDATA%/ You can now go ahead and create an init.el file inside the .emacs.d directory. Put some sample configuration in your init.el file and see if Emacs picks it up when you re-start Emacs. Also see this this answer on Emacs Stackexchange.

This answer specifically address the question of how/where to find Emacs' user-init-file on Microsoft Windows.

HOME and Startup Directories on MS-Windows

Here is the relavent section from the Emacs manual (available via C-h i) Emacs > Microsoft Windows > Windows Home

The Windows equivalent of HOME is the user-specific application data directory. The actual location depends on the Windows version; ... C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming on Windows Vista and later ... If this directory does not exist or cannot be accessed, Emacs falls back to C:\ as the default value of ‘HOME’.

This location is stored in the environment variable that windows refers to as %APPDATA%. See this question and answer on superuser

You can try to find the location of your user-init-file by doing C-h v and then user-init-file [RET]. You will see an output similar to

~/.emacs

On Windows this isn't particularly helpful. We can now find out what Emacs means by ~ doing one of the following:

C-x C-f > ~ > [backspace] The echo area at the bottom of your Emacs screen will expand to show you what Emacs currently consider to be HOME. (Note that this works on Windows and according to @NickD doesn't work on GNU/Linux)

OR more generally (quoting from the Emacs manual)

You can always find out what Emacs thinks is your home directory’s location by typing C-x d ~/ <RET>. This should present the list of files in the home directory, and show its full name on the first line. Likewise, to visit your init file, type C-x C-f ~/.emacs <RET> (assuming the file’s name is .emacs).

Setting up the init.el on Windows

Instead of keeping a .emacs file most emacs users now use an init.el file stored in your emacs-user-directory. This directory defaults to ~/.emacs and in your case %APPDATA%/.emacs.d/. Assuming you don't already have a .emacs file stored in %APPDATA%/ You can now go ahead and create an init.el file inside the .emacs.d directory. Put some sample configuration in your init.el file and see if Emacs picks it up when you re-start Emacs. Also see this this anwer on Emacs Stackexchange.

Happy Hacking :)

This answer specifically address the question of how/where to find Emacs' user-init-file on Microsoft Windows.

HOME and Startup Directories on MS-Windows

Here is the relavent section from the Emacs manual (available via C-h i) Emacs > Microsoft Windows > Windows Home

The Windows equivalent of HOME is the user-specific application data directory. The actual location depends on the Windows version; ... C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming on Windows Vista and later ... If this directory does not exist or cannot be accessed, Emacs falls back to C:\ as the default value of ‘HOME’.

This location is stored in the environment variable that windows refers to as %APPDATA%. See this question and answer on superuser

You can try to find the location of your user-init-file by doing C-h v and then user-init-file [RET]. You will see an output similar to

~/.emacs

On Windows this isn't particularly helpful. We can now find out what Emacs means by ~ doing one of the following:

C-x C-f > ~ > [backspace] The echo area at the bottom of your Emacs screen will expand to show you what Emacs currently consider to be HOME. (Note that this works on Windows and according to @NickD doesn't work on GNU/Linux)

OR more generally (quoting from the Emacs manual)

You can always find out what Emacs thinks is your home directory’s location by typing C-x d ~/ <RET>. This should present the list of files in the home directory, and show its full name on the first line. Likewise, to visit your init file, type C-x C-f ~/.emacs <RET> (assuming the file’s name is .emacs).

Setting up the init.el on Windows

Instead of keeping a .emacs file most emacs users now use an init.el file stored in your emacs-user-directory. This directory defaults to ~/.emacs.d and in your case %APPDATA%/.emacs.d/. Assuming you don't already have a .emacs file stored in %APPDATA%/ You can now go ahead and create an init.el file inside the .emacs.d directory. Put some sample configuration in your init.el file and see if Emacs picks it up when you re-start Emacs. Also see this this anwer on Emacs Stackexchange.

Happy Hacking :)