Changing the subject line when you're changing the subject will help
more people see your question.

On 11 Sep 2008, ChristopherL wrote:

On modern Windows, they usually can. I used to use .emacs (and now
~/.emacs.d/init.el) without problems. You can also use _emacs instead
of .emacs.

From the Emacs manual (which came with Emacs, hit C-h r to get there):

,----[ ]
| The Windows equivalent of the `HOME' directory is the "user-specific
| application data directory". The actual location depends on your
| Windows version and system configuration; typical values are
| `C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data' on Windows 2K/XP
| and later, and either `C:\WINDOWS\Application Data' or
| `C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\USERNAME\Application Data' on the older Windows
| 9X/ME systems.
|
| The home directory is where your init file `.emacs' is stored. When
| Emacs starts, it first checks whether the environment variable `HOME'
| is set. If it is, it looks for the init file in the directory pointed
| by `HOME'. If `HOME' is not defined, Emacs checks for an existing
| `.emacs' file in `C:\', the root directory of drive `C:'(1). If
| there's no such file in `C:\', Emacs next uses the Windows system calls
| to find out the exact location of your application data directory. If
| that fails as well, Emacs falls back to `C:\'.
|
| Whatever the final place is, Emacs sets the value of the `HOME'
| environment variable to point to it, and it will use that location for
| other files and directories it normally creates in the user's home
| directory.
|
| You can always find out where Emacs thinks is your home directory's
| location by typing `C-x d ~/ '. This should present the list of
| files in the home directory, and show its full name on the first line.
| Likewise, to visit your init file, type `C-x C-f ~/.emacs '.
|
| Because MS-DOS does not allow file names with leading dots, and
| because older Windows systems made it hard to create files with such
| names, the Windows port of Emacs supports an alternative name `_emacs'
| as a fallback, if such a file exists in the home directory, whereas
| `.emacs' does not.