Locking / Protecting Default Settings from Being Changed by Users (Managed Settings via the Admin Folder)

Q: I've deployed default settings using the "defaults" folder, but users can still change them after their first launch. How do I lock certain settings so they can't be modified?

A: The "defaults" folder (see Creating Default User Settings for Large Deployments) only seeds a user's settings once, on their very first launch. After that, the values live in the user's own profile and can be freely changed in Preferences — they are not locked.

If you need certain settings to be enforced and re-applied on every launch, use the separate "admin" folder instead. Settings placed here are treated as managed/IT-controlled values:

• They are read and applied every time the application starts, layered on top of the user's own settings.

• They are also re-applied immediately whenever the user closes the Preferences dialog — so even if a user edits a locked value during a session, it snaps back and the user sees a "Managed Settings" notification.

• Unlike the "defaults" folder, this is not a one-time seed — it takes effect continuously, for every user, on every machine where the file is present, regardless of whether that user profile is new or already existed.

Step 1: Creating the Admin Settings

1. Install and launch Xodo PDF Studio on an Admin machine.

2. Configure only the settings and preferences you want to force/lock for all users (e.g., disable software updates, enforce a specific default page size, lock OCR language, etc.). Avoid including settings you only want as an editable starting point — those belong in the "defaults" folder instead.

3. Exit Xodo PDF Studio (File Tab -> Exit) to write out the settings.

4. Locate the user settings file

Step 2: Applying Admin (Managed) Settings

1. Locate the admin folder in the Xodo PDF Studio installation directory (same parent directory as "defaults").

2. Copy the settings file(s) into this folder, overwriting any existing files.

Important: Any setting present in an "admin" settings file will always override the same setting in both the "defaults" folder and the user's own saved preferences — on every launch, for every user, indefinitely. Only include the specific settings you intend to permanently lock down; do not copy an entire settings file wholesale unless you intend to enforce every value in it.

Xodo PDF Studio "admin" Folder Locations by OS

Windows

 C:\ProgramData\Apryse Software\XodoPDFStudio\2024\settings\admin

Linux

Installations can vary by distro, but should be located in the same place for most distros in the following folder

Home Folder/XodoPDFStudio/admin

Mac

1. Close/Exit PDF Studio.

2. Open Finder → Applications.

3. Right-click the PDF Studio application icon → Show Package Contents.

4. Go to Contents/java/app/settings/admin.

Note on file/folder permissions: Both the "defaults" and "admin" folders are protected only by the operating system's own file permissions — Xodo PDF Studio does not add its own access control on top. Ensure your deployment process installs these folders/files under an administrator-level account and does not leave them (or their parent directories) writable by standard, non-admin users, or a user with sufficient local file permissions could add or alter settings files themselves.