**Note:** This document is intended as a quick start guide, for more in-depth information and details on how to compile EmulationStation and perform more advanced configuration, please refer to the [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md) document.
Getting started with EmulationStation is very easy, just make sure to install the software properly, either manually as built from source code or using one of the supplied packages. On Windows you'll use the installer instead of a package.
Upon first startup, ES will create its home directory, by default the location is ~/.emulationstation.
On Unix this defaults to /home/<username>/.emulationstation/ and on Windows it defaults to C:\Users\<username>\.emulationstation\
A settings file, `es_settings.cfg` will be generated with all the default settings, and a `es_systems.cfg` file will also be copied from the program resource folder, that contains the game ROM and emulator settings.
There's a log file in the home directory as well named `es_log.txt`, please refer to this in case on any errors as it should provide information on what went wrong.
Upon startup with the default settings, ES is set to the gamelist view style `AUTOMATIC`. In this mode the application will look for any game media files (videos and images) and set the view style accordingly. If at least one image is found for any game for a certain system, the view style `DETAILED` will be shown and if at least one video file is found, the view style `VIDEO` will be selected. The gamelist view styles are described in more detail later in this document.
