diff --git a/es-app/src/SystemData.cpp b/es-app/src/SystemData.cpp
index dc9e28e17..2866603c5 100644
--- a/es-app/src/SystemData.cpp
+++ b/es-app/src/SystemData.cpp
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 
 #include "SystemData.h"
 
+#include "resources/ResourceManager.h"
 #include "utils/FileSystemUtil.h"
 #include "utils/StringUtil.h"
 #include "CollectionSystemManager.h"
@@ -218,16 +219,17 @@ bool SystemData::loadConfig()
     LOG(LogInfo) << "Loading system config file " << path << "...";
 
     if (!Utils::FileSystem::exists(path)) {
-        LOG(LogError) << "Error - es_systems.cfg file does not exist!";
-        writeExampleConfig(getConfigPath(true));
-        return false;
+        LOG(LogWarning) << "Warning - es_systems.cfg does not exist.";
+        if (copyConfigTemplate(getConfigPath(true)))
+            return false;
+        path = getConfigPath(false);
     }
 
     pugi::xml_document doc;
     pugi::xml_parse_result res = doc.load_file(path.c_str());
 
     if (!res) {
-        LOG(LogError) << "Error - Could not parse es_systems.cfg file!";
+        LOG(LogError) << "Error - Could not parse es_systems.cfg";
         LOG(LogError) << res.description();
         return false;
     }
@@ -331,50 +333,28 @@ bool SystemData::loadConfig()
     return true;
 }
 
-void SystemData::writeExampleConfig(const std::string& path)
+bool SystemData::copyConfigTemplate(const std::string& path)
 {
-    std::ofstream file(path.c_str());
+    std::string systemsTemplateFile;;
 
-    file << "<!-- This is the EmulationStation Systems configuration file.\n"
-            "All systems must be contained within the <systemList> tag.-->\n"
-            "\n"
-            "<systemList>\n"
-            "	<!-- Here's an example system to get you started. -->\n"
-            "	<system>\n"
-            "\n"
-            "		<!-- A short name, used internally. Traditionally lower-case. -->\n"
-            "		<name>nes</name>\n"
-            "\n"
-            "		<!-- A \"pretty\" name, displayed in menus and such. -->\n"
-            "		<fullname>Nintendo Entertainment System</fullname>\n"
-            "\n"
-            "		<!-- The path to start searching for ROMs in. '~' will be expanded to $HOME on Linux or %HOMEPATH% on Windows. -->\n"
-            "		<path>~/roms/nes</path>\n"
-            "\n"
-            "		<!-- A list of extensions to search for, delimited by any of the whitespace characters (\", \\r\\n\\t\").\n"
-            "		You MUST include the period at the start of the extension! It's also case sensitive. -->\n"
-            "		<extension>.nes .NES</extension>\n"
-            "\n"
-            "		<!-- The shell command executed when a game is selected. A few special tags are replaced if found in a command:\n"
-            "		%ROM% is replaced by a bash-special-character-escaped absolute path to the ROM.\n"
-            "		%BASENAME% is replaced by the \"base\" name of the ROM.  For example, \"/foo/bar.rom\" would have a basename of \"bar\". Useful for MAME.\n"
-            "		%ROM_RAW% is the raw, unescaped path to the ROM. -->\n"
-            "		<command>retroarch -L ~/cores/libretro-fceumm.so %ROM%</command>\n"
-            "\n"
-            "		<!-- The platform to use when scraping. You can see the full list of accepted platforms in src/PlatformIds.cpp.\n"
-            "		It's case sensitive, but everything is lowercase. This tag is optional.\n"
-            "		You can use multiple platforms too, delimited with any of the whitespace characters (\", \\r\\n\\t\"), eg: \"genesis, megadrive\" -->\n"
-            "		<platform>nes</platform>\n"
-            "\n"
-            "		<!-- The theme to load from the current theme set.  See THEMES.md for more information.\n"
-            "		This tag is optional. If not set, it will default to the value of <name>. -->\n"
-            "		<theme>nes</theme>\n"
-            "	</system>\n"
-            "</systemList>\n";
+    LOG(LogInfo) << "Attempting to copy template es_systems.cfg file from the resources directory.";
 
-    file.close();
+    #if defined (_WIN64)
+    systemsTemplateFile = ResourceManager::getInstance()->
+            getResourcePath(":/templates/es_systems.cfg_windows");
+    #elif defined(__unix__)
+    systemsTemplateFile = ResourceManager::getInstance()->
+            getResourcePath(":/templates/es_systems.cfg_unix");
+    #endif
 
-    LOG(LogError) << "Example config written!  Go read it at \"" << path << "\"!";
+    if (Utils::FileSystem::copyFile(systemsTemplateFile, path, false)) {
+        LOG(LogError) << "Error - Copying of es_systems.cfg template file failed.";
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    LOG(LogInfo) << "Template es_systems.cfg file copied successfully.";
+
+    return false;
 }
 
 void SystemData::deleteSystems()
diff --git a/es-app/src/SystemData.h b/es-app/src/SystemData.h
index fc68b850c..076911919 100644
--- a/es-app/src/SystemData.h
+++ b/es-app/src/SystemData.h
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ public:
     // Returns true if no errors were encountered.
     // An example will be written if the file doesn't exist.
     static bool loadConfig();
-    static void writeExampleConfig(const std::string& path);
+    static bool copyConfigTemplate(const std::string& path);
     static std::string getConfigPath(bool forWrite);
 
     static std::vector<SystemData*> sSystemVector;
diff --git a/es-app/src/main.cpp b/es-app/src/main.cpp
index 6d03ee107..bd0ea7993 100644
--- a/es-app/src/main.cpp
+++ b/es-app/src/main.cpp
@@ -50,13 +50,6 @@
 #include <iostream>
 #include <time.h>
 
-enum eErrorCodes {
-    NO_ERRORS,
-    NO_SYSTEMS_FILE,
-    NO_ROMS
-};
-
-
 #ifdef _WIN64
 enum eConsoleType {
     NO_CONSOLE,
@@ -336,31 +329,36 @@ bool verifyHomeFolderExists()
 
 // Returns NO_ERRORS if everything is OK.
 // Otherwise returns either NO_SYSTEMS_FILE or NO_ROMS.
-unsigned int loadSystemConfigFile(std::string& errorMsg)
+bool loadSystemConfigFile(std::string& errorMsg)
 {
     if (!SystemData::loadConfig()) {
-        LOG(LogError) << "Error while parsing systems configuration file!";
+        LOG(LogError) << "Error - Could not parse systems configuration file.";
         errorMsg = "COULDN'T FIND THE SYSTEMS CONFIGURATION FILE.\n"
-                "WILL ATTEMPT TO INSTALL A TEMPLATE ES_SYSTEMS.CFG FILE FROM "
-                "THE EMULATIONSTATION RESOURCES DIRECTORY.\n"
-                "PLEASE RESTART THE APPLICATION.";
-        return NO_SYSTEMS_FILE;
+                "ATTEMPTED TO COPY A TEMPLATE ES_SYSTEMS.CFG FILE\n"
+                "FROM THE EMULATIONSTATION RESOURCES DIRECTORY,\n"
+                "BUT THIS FAILED. HAS EMULATIONSTATION BEEN PROPERLY\n"
+                "INSTALLED AND DO YOU HAVE WRITE PERMISSIONS TO \n"
+                "YOUR HOME DIRECTORY?";
+        return true;
     }
 
     if (SystemData::sSystemVector.size() == 0)
     {
-        LOG(LogError) << "No systems found! Does at least one system have a game present? (check "
-        "that extensions match!)\n";
-        errorMsg = "THE SYSTEMS CONFIGURATION FILE EXISTS BUT NO GAME "
-                "ROM FILES WERE FOUND. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT THE 'ROMDIRECTORY' "
-                "SETTING IN ES_SYSTEMS.CFG IS POINTING TO YOUR ROM DIRECTORY "
-                "AND THAT YOUR GAME ROMS ARE USING SUPPORTED FILE EXTENSIONS. "
+        LOG(LogError) << "Error - No systems found, does at least one system have a game present? "
+                "(Check that the file extensions are supported.)";
+        errorMsg = "THE SYSTEMS CONFIGURATION FILE EXISTS, BUT NO\n"
+                "GAME FILES WERE FOUND. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT\n"
+                "THE 'ROMDIRECTORY' SETTING IN ES_SETTINGS.CFG IS\n"
+                "POINTING TO YOUR ROM DIRECTORY AND THAT YOUR\n"
+                "GAME FILES ARE USING SUPPORTED FILE EXTENSIONS.\n"
+                "THE GAME SYSTEMS SUBDIRECTORIES ALSO NEED TO\n"
+                "MATCH THE PLATFORM TAGS IN ES_SYSTEMS.CFG.\n"
                 "THIS IS THE CURRENTLY CONFIGURED ROM DIRECTORY:\n";
         errorMsg += FileData::getROMDirectory();
-        return NO_ROMS;
+        return true;
     }
 
-    return NO_ERRORS;
+    return false;
 }
 
 // Called on exit, assuming we get far enough to have the log initialized.
@@ -437,7 +435,7 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[])
 
     std::string errorMsg;
 
-    if (loadSystemConfigFile(errorMsg) != NO_ERRORS) {
+    if (loadSystemConfigFile(errorMsg)) {
         // Something went terribly wrong.
         if (errorMsg == "") {
             LOG(LogError) << "Unknown error occured while parsing system config file.";
diff --git a/es-core/src/utils/FileSystemUtil.cpp b/es-core/src/utils/FileSystemUtil.cpp
index 271536cef..c6e21325e 100644
--- a/es-core/src/utils/FileSystemUtil.cpp
+++ b/es-core/src/utils/FileSystemUtil.cpp
@@ -9,8 +9,10 @@
 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
 
 #include "utils/FileSystemUtil.h"
+#include "Log.h"
 
 #include <sys/stat.h>
+#include <fstream>
 #include <string.h>
 
 #if defined(_WIN64)
@@ -516,6 +518,53 @@ namespace Utils
             return resolved;
         }
 
+        bool copyFile(const std::string& _source_path,
+                const std::string& _destination_path, bool _overwrite)
+        {
+            if (!exists(_source_path)) {
+                LOG(LogError) << "Error - Can't copy file, source file does not exist:";
+                LOG(LogError) << _source_path;
+                return true;
+            }
+
+            if(isDirectory(_destination_path)) {
+                LOG(LogError) << "Error - Destination file is actually a directory:";
+                LOG(LogError) << _destination_path;
+                return true;
+            }
+
+            if (!_overwrite && exists(_destination_path)) {
+                LOG(LogError) << "Error - Destination file exists and the overwrite flag "
+                        "has not been set.";
+                return true;
+            }
+
+            std::ifstream sourceFile(_source_path, std::ios::binary);
+
+            if (sourceFile.fail()) {
+                LOG(LogError) << "Error - Couldn't read from source file (" << _source_path <<
+                        "), permission problems?";
+                sourceFile.close();
+                return true;
+            }
+
+            std::ofstream targetFile(_destination_path, std::ios::binary);
+
+            if (targetFile.fail()) {
+                LOG(LogError) << "Error - Couldn't write to target file (" << _destination_path <<
+                        "), permission problems?";
+                targetFile.close();
+                return true;
+            }
+
+            targetFile << sourceFile.rdbuf();
+
+            sourceFile.close();
+            targetFile.close();
+
+            return false;
+        }
+
         bool removeFile(const std::string& _path)
         {
             std::string path = getGenericPath(_path);
diff --git a/es-core/src/utils/FileSystemUtil.h b/es-core/src/utils/FileSystemUtil.h
index a431afcdc..548683958 100644
--- a/es-core/src/utils/FileSystemUtil.h
+++ b/es-core/src/utils/FileSystemUtil.h
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ namespace Utils
         std::string removeCommonPath(const std::string& _path,
                 const std::string& _common, bool& _contains);
         std::string resolveSymlink(const std::string& _path);
+        bool copyFile(const std::string& _source_path,
+                const std::string& _destination_path, bool _overwrite);
         bool removeFile(const std::string& _path);
         bool createDirectory(const std::string& _path);
         bool exists(const std::string& _path);