- FRC Game Manual
- FRC Game Q&A

# Manually Setting the Driver Station to Start Custom Dashboard

Note

If WPILib is not installed to the default location (such as when files are copied to a PC manually), the dashboard of choice may not launch properly. To have the DS start a custom dashboard when it starts up, you have to manually modify the settings for the default dashboard.

Warning

This is not needed for most installations, try using the appropriate Dashboard Type setting for your language first.

## Set Driver Station to Default

Open the Driver Station software, click on the Setup tab and set the Dashboard setting to Default. Then close the Driver Station!

## Open DS Data Storage file

Browse to `C:\Users\Public\Documents\FRC` and double click on `FRC DS Data Storage` to open it.

## DashboardCmdLine

Locate the line beginning with `DashboardCmdLine`. Modify it to point to the dashboard to launch when the driver station starts

### LabVIEW Custom Dashboard

Replace the string after `=` with `"C:\\PATH\\TO\\DASHBOARD.exe"` where the path specified is the path to the dashboard `exe` file. Save the `FRC DS Data Storage` file.

### Java Dashboard

Replace the string after `=` with `java -jar "C:\\PATH\\TO\\DASHBOARD.jar"` where the path specified is the path to the dashboard `jar` file. Save the `FRC DS Data Storage` file.

Tip

Shuffleboard and Smartdashboard require Java 17.

### Dashboard from WPILib installer

Replace the string after `=` with `C:\\Users\\Public\\wpilib\\YYYY\\tools\\DASHBOARD.exe` where `YYYY` is the year and `DASHBOARD.exe` is `Shuffleboard.exe`, `Smartdashboard.exe`, or `Elastic.exe`. For example `DashboardCmdLine = "wscript C:\\Users\\Public\\wpilib\\2026\\tools\\Elastic.exe"`. Save the `FRC DS Data Storage` file.

## Launch Driver Station

The Driver Station should now launch the dashboard each time it is opened.