Selectively backup and restore 3dsMax.ini settings with my new tool .
It’s part of my scriptpack . Check out the installation instructions here.

Click on a item in the tree. Use the ‘Save Settings’ button to backup that sections settings.

Use the ‘Load Settings’ button to import saved settings from a file. This will over right the current 3dsMax settings.

Use the ‘explore 3dsMax.ini location’ button to open the Windows Explorer at the folder.

Note: You could also type this code into the MAXScript Listener

shellLaunch ( GetDir #maxData )

There’s some more info on the GetDir function in this post.

currentdefaults.ini

A bunch of settings are base on class ids ( long hexadecimal numbers  ).

For example 0x795c4168 0x669a1835 is the Radiosity setting for Advanced lighting there’s more in docs.autodesk.com Market-Specific Defaults