# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/User Preferences Windows

|previous=Blender Windowing System
|subcat=Background
}}
```
!A screenshot of the Blender Preferences window in Blender
2.80

In this module, we\'ll take a closer look at the Blender Preferences
window.

## Accessing Blender Preferences

To open the Blender Preferences window click *Edit → Preferences\...*

In Blender 2.79, you will find it under *File → User Preferences\...*

## Configuring Your Preferences

In order to get to modeling and rendering sooner, this tutorial will
cover only a few of the many user-settable preferences.

If you ever need to restore Blender to its factory settings, click *File
→ Defaults → Load Factory Settings*

### Save & Load → Auto Save

As the name suggests, Auto Save automatically saves the current .blend
after a specified period of time. You can turn this on and off using the
checkbox labelled \"Auto Save\". You can also adjust the amount of time
between each save, by adjusting the \"Timer (Minutes)\" field.

### System → Undo Steps

By default, Blender remembers your last 32 actions and allows you to
undo them one at a time by either pressing
 or by selecting a frame under *Edit
→ Undo History*. However, you can change the number of *Undo Steps*
stored to remember more or less actions, in case you want to conserve
memory or simply stay on the safe side. You can also use the *Undo
Memory Limit* slider to specify the amount of RAM (in megabytes) used
for storing the undo levels. In case you\'re not too worried about
memory, you can set the *Undo Memory Limit* field to 0 to remove the
memory limit.

### Input → Numpad Emulation

Blender uses numberpad keys (such as )
to control the 3D View and ordinary numeral keys (such as
) to change layers. If you are working on
a laptop or if you find the numberpad inconvenient, you can select
*Emulate Numpad* to reassign the 3D View controls to the ordinary
numeral keys.

### Input → Emulate 3 Button Mouse

Blender makes significant use of all three buttons on a standard
computer mouse. If you do not have a mouse with three buttons, enabling
this setting will let you perform
-related actions with


### Keymap

In Blender 2.79 and earlier, Blender used right click for selection.
However, in Blender 2.8, this was changed to left click on default,
along with some changes to keyboard shortcuts for efficiency. To stay
compatible with different users\' preferences, three keymap presets are
provided on installation: \"Blender\", the new default keymap, \"Blender
27x\", which includes very few changes compared to earlier versions, and
\"Industry Compatible\", designed to be used by those coming from other
3D software, such as Maya and ZBrush

Since much of this book was written before the 2.8 update came out, you
may find pages that still use the old \"right click to select\" option,
along with some outdated keybinds. If you\'re following a lot of
tutorials for Blender 2.79 or earlier, you can go into *Keymap* and
select *Blender 27x* under the presets list. You can always switch back
if needed.

## Additional Resources

-   The Blender manual pages on
    Preferences
-   The tutorial on Non-standard
    Equipment describes other
    workarounds for numpad issues.

