TF2's default settings are hot garbage. This may come to a surprise to some of you reading this, while not so to others. But the community at large has agreed that TF2's default settings are a relic of the past, and function poorly in the current modern state of PC gaming.

Why are they hot garbage? Simple, really.
- The FOV settings give major disadvantages to new players, who can't see everything around them
- The interp settings can often lead to frustration with players, notably with hitreg. The default value, 0.1, is more geared towards people with poor internet connections in 2006, but is poorly optimized for what we live with currently in 2020 (or 2021 if you're reading this 1 year after I wrote this guide, or 2022, or 2023, or 2024, or 2025, or 2026, or 2027, or 2028)
- This one really baffles me - Basic features, such as plus-sign indicators showing over injured teammates when playing Medic, or hitsounds, or quick switching, or the max charge noise when playing Sniper, all disabled by default.
- This goes back to the whole thing about seeing everything around you, but the default viewmodels are unnecessarily massive so as to completely obstruct the right side of the screen in some cases.

This guide shows you how you can change the default settings using custom scripts that run in TF2, no other mods required.

If you're interested in other ways to optimize your TF2 experience, check out my guide on Mouse Acceleration:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2177375473

I have two people to thank for the info in this guide:

- The TF2ber Aar, who has made a series of videos on the topic of TF2's default settings.
- Feksil, who has made a TF2 workshop entry for changing TF2's default settings.

Please support Feksil's work so Valve can actually implement these settings officially!
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2156169616

On 64-bit windows, the default location for it is here:


On 32-bit windows, it'll be here instead:


On macOS, it'll be here:
(replace <your user name> with your actual username)


On Ubuntu and other debian-based distros of Linux, it'll be here:

So in your steamapps folder, basically just go here:

Simply create a new text file and name it to

On Windows, this'll look like:
Step 1: Right-click on the background of the folder
Step 2: Go into New - Text Document
Step 3: Rename the file, delete the .txt and type in autoexec.cfg

(On windows, the .txt extension might not be there because Windows likes to hide known file extensions by default. Just click "View" at the top, and check "File name extensions" on the show/hide category.)

You have now made an autoexec.cfg file. Basically, any commands you put into this file will be executed every time you start up TF2.

Now edit your autoexec.cfg file with notepad, nano, whatever editor you use.

Copy and paste all of this into it, then save.

Your TF2 settings are now better optimized. Restart TF2 if you had it open while doing all this.
If you'd like to learn more about what these settings actually do, refer to the link in the Credits section, and look at Aar's videos.

I actually have 3 more commands that I suggest you add.


These commands basically just make your settings for downloading custom content from community servers default to "allow anything and everything". Unless you go to shady severs, there's not much reason to not include these. Potato.TF for example, has issues if you don't have it configured this way (Missing textures for class icons being the most common example).