Upon invocation, the FILEs specified as arguments will be used to populate the various available CPC machine slots. The type of slot is determined by the file format, detected by its extension. Caprice32 supports the following file formats: .dsk (disk image), .ipf (Interchangeable Preservation Format disk image), .voc or .cdt (tape image), .cpr (cartridge image), .sna (snapshot image), .zip (zip of any previously described file). Specifying slot content on the command line is optional.

Caprice32 supports two disk drives: drive A and drive B. If two disk image files (.dsk or .ipf) are provided, the first one will be loaded in drive A and the second one in drive B.

The cart_path, snap_path, dsk_path and tape_path entries in the configuration file are only used to specify the directory to open when loading/saving files in the GUI. The full path to the various slot contents must be provided on the command line.

The rom_path entry in the configuration file is used by the emulator to find its system ROM and cartridges.

When launched, Caprice32 will look for a configuration file in several locations. If a configuration file was specified using the --cfg_file command line switch, Caprice32 will try and use it. If no configuration file was specified, or the configuration file specified does not exist, Caprice32 will try and open, in this order:
- $CWD/cap32.cfg ($CWD being the directory where the cap32 executable resides)
- cap32.cfg file in the location pointed to by the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable. If XDG_CONFIG_HOME is undefined, it will look at $HOME/.config/ as default XDG_CONFIG_HOME directory.
- $HOME/.cap32.cfg for compatibility.
- /etc/cap32.cfg.
Caprice32 will use the first valid file it finds. If no configuration file is found, a default configuration will be used.

The configuration file contains various configuration parameters, some of which can be modified from the GUI. When saving the configuration from the GUI, it will be written in the configuration file following the same order than previously described, except for the addition of the write permission condition.

Most of the configuration file entries are commented in the configuration file provided by default with Caprice32. However, when overwriting the configuration file from the emulator menu, all comments will be lost.

Emulator functionalities are available through function keys (F1-F12). As CPC also had function keys, those are emulated by keys from the numpad. This makes sense since their disposition on the CPC keyboard was similar to the numpad. If your computer doesn't have a numpad (e.g laptop that doesn't support it with Fn key) the only way to access the CPC F1-F10 keys is through the virtual keyboard. The emulator function key mapping can also be redefined through the host keyboard mapping file.

The emulator function default key mapping is:

Joystick emulation can be turned on with the F7 key. When joystick emulation is on, real joysticks are disabled, and the keyboard arrows (directions) as well as X and Z (fire buttons) keys are remapped to emulate the joystick 1 of the CPC machine.

Caprice32 can also be controlled completely from the joystick. The configuration file joystick_menu_button and joystick_vkeyboard_button entries allow binding menu and virtual keyboard invocations to some of the (host) joystick button.

Caprice32 supports CPC English, French and Spanish keyboard layouts. The CPC keyboard layout is defined in the configuration file by the keyboard entry (0: English, 1: French, 2: Spanish). The host keyboard mapping is defined in a specific file, allowing to remap any host key to any specific key. The mapping file to use is set by the kbd_layout configuration entry. The mapping file must be put in the resources directory, defined by the configuration file resources_path entry. If the mapping file is not defined or not found, Caprice32 will default to a standard US keyboard map.

Launches cap32, loads the content of ./disk/sorcery.dsk in the drive A slot, and ./trail.dsk in the drive B slot.