CS:GO guides: how to make an autoexec.cfg file

Why does one need a config in CS:GO?

There is an overwhelming number of people asking me every day to explain automatically launch radar and crosshair commands with configs from our Counter Strike Global Offensive Crosshair Generator. I do my best to answer everyone, but communicating in the format of a correspondence it can be difficult to explain even such trivial things. Therefore, I decided to dedicate a separate guide to this topic.

Installation and working with a config is especially important after reinstalling your Windows, Steam client or buying a new PC. Many complex binds and commands do not work if you type them directly in the console. They only work after you will create a config file.

What is Autoexec.cfg in CS:GO

The Autoexec.cfg file is used in CS:GO to launch regular settings and configs implemented by commands. The autoexec.cfg file is automatically accomplished on startup and can contain set of console commands in Counter Strike Global Offensive.

File types and the .Cfg Editor

Setting Windows parameters

The first thing we need to do is to disable the automatic hide file extensions feature in the explorer. I have Windows 10 installed, so I just type the following in the search box:

I enter the Folder And Search Options in the View tab, find the Hide extensions for known file types item and uncheck it.

If you have Windows 7 installed on your PC you can do the same via the Control panel > Folder parameters.

How To Open .cfg File

As an option, I recommend downloading a convenient text editor. For example Notepad++. It is fast and free, it is also useful because it is not buggy as opposed to the standard Wordpad Editor.

Where can I find the config file?

When you start CS:GO for the first time, the default config is automatically created. However, it is located not in the game folder, but in one of the Steam client root folders, in the UserData folder.

If you used a particular Steam client installation to log in from different accounts, then finding the needed one may become a serious problem. However, there is one feature that makes it very easy to work with configs on different accounts.

It works this way:

Log into Steam using the right account and go to Inventory in your profile, then go to Trade offers menu:

Select the Who can send me Trade Offers? item in the menu to the right, you will see the link to the trade URL in the lowest block of the screen menu.

What we need is not the link itself but the number it includes. You don’t need to remember the whole number, just three-four last digits.

Now we open the Userdata folder in the Steam folder, and bingo - we see the subfolder named with the number in the link, which actually contains the config files linked to the account:

Having opened the subfolder we see various folders inside that are associated with your Steam games profiles. We need the CS:GO configs located in the 730 folder, so just memorize this number. The following sequence is simple: open the Local folder, then the CFG subfolder, which contains the default config files:

If you have just installed the game, for example, after reinstalling your Windows OS, then you need to launch CS: GO once to get config files generated automatically.

How To Create a Config File

Create a new text editor file with any acceptable name you like, the thing is that it has to have the .cfg extension.

For my example, I created the autoexec.cfg file.

Open the file for editing, copy or type in the binds or settings you need.

In my case:

Cap fps

fps_max 999

Grenade binds

bind "f" "use weapon_knife; use weapon_flashbang";
bind "q" "use weapon_smokegrenade";
bind "mouse4" "use weapon_molotov; use weapon_incgrenade";
bind "mouse5" "use weapon_hegrenade"

Bomb drop bind

bind "n" "use weapon_c4; drop;"

Bomb search bind

alias +bombfind "+use;
gameinstructor_enable 1;
cl_clearhinthistory";
alias -bombfind "-use;
gameinstructor_enable 0;
cl_clearhinthistory";
bind "e" "+bombfind"

And the crosshair

cl_crosshairalpha "255";
cl_crosshaircolor "5";
cl_crosshaircolor_b "0";
cl_crosshaircolor_r "255";
cl_crosshaircolor_g "225";
cl_crosshairdot "0";
cl_crosshairgap "-2";
cl_crosshairsize "2";
cl_crosshairstyle "4";
cl_crosshairusealpha "1";
cl_crosshairthickness "0.5";
cl_fixedcrosshairgap "-2";
cl_crosshair_outlinethickness "0";
cl_crosshair_drawoutline "1";
host_writeconfig

You can insert any settings you need in this config.

Set launch options

Now, we need to make all our CS:GO autoexec configs load automatically at the game launch. For that we need to go back to our Steam client menu, go to the Library and right-click on the Counter-strike Global Offensive in the library list, click the Properties in the right button menu:

After that click Set Launch Options display button in the General tab. Then enter the following must have commands in the Set Launch Options menu:

• -novid, for skipping the intro,
• -tickrate 128 for creating a lobby with 128 tick rate,
• -freq followed by the value of the maximum refresh rate of your display, which can be 60, 75, 120 or 144Hz. I have a 144Hz display, that’s why I put the “144” value.
• And eventually -autoexec.cfg for the auto load of our recently created config file.

Checking the result

Launch CS:GO to check if our intentions came to fruition. Create a map with bots.

• crosshair - check
• grenade binds - check
• bomb search bind also works

As you can see, it's pretty simple, if you know what you're doing.