# 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 :ref:`Dashboard Type setting <docs/software/driverstation/driver-station:Setup Tab>` for your language first.

## Set Driver Station to Default

.. image:: images/manually-setting-the-driver-station-to-start-smartdashboard/set-ds-to-default.png
   :alt: Click on the Setup tab (gear icon) and then change the "Dashboard Type".

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

.. image:: images/manually-setting-the-driver-station-to-start-smartdashboard/open-ds-data-storage-file.png
   :alt: Highlights the "FRC DS Data Storage.ini" file in Windows explorer.

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

## DashboardCmdLine

.. image:: images/manually-setting-the-driver-station-to-start-smartdashboard/dashboard-cmd-line.png
   :alt: Modify the "DashboardCmdLine" entry to control where it looks for the file that it will start.

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

### 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 ``wscript C:\\Users\\Public\\wpilib\\YYYY\\tools\\DASHBOARD.vbs`` where ``YYYY`` is the year and ``DASHBOARD.vbs`` is ``Shuffleboard.vbs``, ``Smartdashboard.vbs``, or ``Elastic.vbs``. For example ``DashboardCmdLine = "wscript C:\\Users\\Public\\wpilib\\2025\\tools\\Elastic.vbs"``. Save the ``FRC DS Data Storage`` file.

## Launch Driver Station

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