IniRead("system.ini", "boot", "shell", " ") always returns explorer.exe

[emendelson]

Here is something very strange. Take these two absolutely identical files, one named system.ini, the other named system.inf. (They are from a Windows 3.11 setup.)

Create this script in the same folder:

Local $a = IniRead("system.ini", "boot", "shell", "")
Local $b = IniRead("system.inf", "boot", "shell", "")
MsgBox(0, '', $a & @CRLF & $b)

On my Windows 7 32-bit system, the first line returns "explorer.exe" (which does not appear in the file) and the second line correctly returns "progman.exe". 

"explorer.exe" gets returned even if I type in the correct full path of the system.ini file that contains the line shell=progman.exe. The correct item gets returned if I change the filename from system.ini to temp.ini - but "system.ini" always returns explorer.exe. Other keys in the same section are returned correctly, but the combination of "system.ini", "boot", and "shell" always returns "explorer.exe".

I can't find a clue to this anywhere in the help file. My C:\WINDOWS folder has a system.ini (installed by Windows 7 by default), but it doesn't say "explorer.exe" anywhere. Where is this coming from?

SYSTEM.INI

SYSTEM.INF

Edited January 12, 2018 by emendelson
Clarification

[benners]

Had a similar issue a while ago clicky . It's to do with Windows and ini files. It maps a lot of the "system" ini files to the registry so the iniread function just returns those values. Still seems relevant today although the reg key isn't there. If you rename the ini file to .int or other it works.

InireadSection also fails.

[careca]

I wasn't aware of this.

And my W10 gave the same result as OP