How to Edit a Configuration File in Windows

IMPORTANT: The information in this article is specific to Orchid version 1.12.7 or earlier.  Equivalent instructions for Orchid versions 2.0.0 and above are available in the Orchid Core VMS Installation Guide in the section "How to Edit a Configuration File in Windows".

Orchid and the ONVIF Auto-Discovery service both have properties files which may need to be edited at times to perform actions such as manually resetting the administrator password or updating the port used by Orchid. When necessary, these files can be edited through text editors such as WordPad.

IMPORTANT: Windows file system paths using backslashes must be escaped with an extra backslash.  For instance, the path to a TLS key must be specified similar to: C:\\path\\to\\my\\tls.key.

Note: In order to edit Orchid’s configuration files, you will need to be logged in as an administrator user.

The default locations for Orchid’s configuration files in Windows are:

• Orchid’s Default Settings: C:\Program Files\Orchid\bin\orchid_server.properties
• Stores all of Orchid's default settings and can be used to update Orchid's port number, manually update the admin password, etc.
• ONVIF Auto-Discovery: C:\Program Files\Orchid\onvif_autodiscovery\onvif_autodiscovery.properties
• Used to edit the default settings for the ONVIF Auto-Discovery service used by Orchid.

Note: These instructions outline editing the configuration files in WordPad, which is included in Windows by default. While other text editors such as Notepad can be used, we recommend using WordPad because it will preserve the proper line endings used in the file by Orchid.

1. Open the Windows start menu and type “wordpad” into the search bar.

2. Right click on the WordPad icon in the start menu and click “Run as administrator”

3. When asked if you want to let WordPad make changes to the computer, click the “Yes” button.

4. Click “File” > “Open” and navigate to the location of the configuration file you are editing when the new window pops up.

5. Select the file you want to edit in the list of files.
If no files are appearing, ensure the “All Documents” option is selected in the drop down menu located directly above the “Open” and “Close” buttons.

6. The file you selected will open in WordPad allowing you to edit it.

7. When you are ready to save the file, click “File” > “Save” to save the configuration file.

The changes to the configuration file will be saved successfully. However, the service will need to be restarted before the new settings will take effect.