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Preferences
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This menu gives you access to all the settings that establish the behaviour of VLC. Each section of preferences comes in two flavours: :guilabel:`Simple` and :guilabel:`Advanced`.
The simple preferences are settings for the most commonly used parameters of the application while the advanced settings require some deeper knowledge to use them effectively.

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Where to find VLC preferences
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To open the Preferences panel, select :menuselection:`Tools --> Preferences`.

.. figure::  /images/basic/settings/preferences_preferences.png
   :align:   center

Here is the :guilabel:`Simple Preferences` panel where you can modify the essential settings of VLC. 

.. figure::  /images/basic/settings/preferences_simple_preferences.png
   :align:   center

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How to reset the VLC preferences
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Many problems with VLC are due to incorrect settings or a broken plugin cache. You can solve these by deleting VLC's preferences and cache.
To do this, open VLC on computer, click on :menuselection:`Tools --> Preferences --> Reset Preferences`.

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Preference sections
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Interface
   Choosing and configuring an alternate interface.
Audio
   Allows you to choose the type audio to play through which channels. 
Video
   An option to choose which video to play through which channels. 
Subtitles/OSD
   Here, you can make changes to subtitles and On Screen Display Settings.
Input / Codecs
   How to interpret the video file/stream.
Hotkeys
   Keyboard shortcuts used in VLC.