Set Default Client Configuration

The following is how to set the default AX client configuration.  Usually the reason that I want to do this is so that Visual Studio will open using the cus layer.

The standard instructions on using the AX 2012 Client Configuration tool are here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa569651.aspx

But they don't clearly say how to set the default configuration.  There are a few ways to do this, but this is what I do:

1. Open the AX 2012 Client Configuration tool.
2. Click Manage, Create Configuration.
3. Edit the connection, developer, etc information as needed on your new configuration.
4. Click Manage, Save configuration as file and choose a file name.  Now you have an axc file that you can share with someone else.
5. Click Manage, Import configuration from file and import the axc file that you just saved.  This is the key step that actually sets up a new default configuration that is saved in the registry.

When this is done correctly, you will open up the AX 2012 Configuration utility and the Configuration dropdown will show your desired default configuration.  Double check that the settings are correct.  If not, edit them and click Apply to save them to the registry.

View/edit in the registry
As an aside, assuming the active configuration store is "Registry" (noted in the image above), the configuration setting values can be seen using RegEdit at the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Dynamics\5.0\Configuration.  (or 6.0, etc)

It's possible to make some changes to values there, but it's not normally necessary.

Edit the Shortcut
As an alternative, you can create a shortcut to Visual Studio that references a specific axc file as described in the following link.  The downside of this method is that it only works when launching VS from your shortcut, not from within the AX AOT.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg889291.aspx