Using different settings directories for different projects in NetBeans

By default NetBeans stores it’s settings in a directory called .netbeans under the user’s home directory.
But what if you need to use other settings for other projects (for example home projects)?
It is simple, need to use other settings directory.
There are 2 ways. You can edit netbeans.conf file or you can specify what settings directory should use NetBeans when it starts. I am going to show both of them.

First:
netbeans_directory/etc/netbeans.conf
second line

Change to your new settings directory.
Note: by the way, if this directory doesn’t exists yet NetBeans will create it automatically.

It is great, but I prefer second way.

Second:
I set settings directory as parameter to the netbeans.exe:

netbeans.exe --userdir D:/dev/nb_settings_home

With this command it is easy to create shortcuts for different NetBeans environments.

As you can see it is very easy to use different settings for different projects.

In this article I used NetBeans 6.8.