Abstract: Techniques are provided for customizing user settings for applications. Each user profile includes one or more packages that each includes user settings for one or more applications. Each package may be application specific, may be directed to common settings for an application suite, or may contain functional groups of user settings. For each application, a template may be stored that is associated with the application. The template identifies the application and indicates locations where the application stores the user settings. An agent may be associated with a trigger mechanism. The agent is configured to access the template of the application and to open a corresponding package at a central storage location if the trigger mechanism is triggered. The agent is configured to apply the user settings included in the package to the application at the locations indicated in the template.