Right now, when a user needs to assign more memory to a NetBeans-platform based application, this user has to modify the etc/xxx.conf file. Same thing to change the JDK home.

This is a reasonable expectation for the NetBeans IDE, as users of this application are developers who understand the notion of configuration file, memory and JDK location.

For a NetBeans-platform based application that is not meant to be for technical users, this is the source of many issues: the name of this folder is arcane, and the configuration file is cluttered, with the pitfalls of manual entry. In the real world, normal users won't find where to configure these settings without external help (support, documentation, etc). The first evaluation of a NetBeans-platform based application tends to be "it couldn't find Java" or "it ran out of memory".

Practically, to "expose" these settings to a non-technical user, we tend create a .bat file on Windows where these settings are set explicitly. But this is not great because it breaks the well-known Windows paradigm that executables are .exe files. And there is this .bat window open all the time.

There has to be a better way, at least on Windows. I do not know for sure what to do about it. My first idea would be to create a "Control Panel" with the same name as the application. Just like the "Java" control panel. 

It would be really useful to have a way to implement a control panel that controls such application settings, outside of the application itself.