# User Menu and Account Settings

> Access and configure your account settings in Cascade CMS, including display preferences, default site, notifications, password, profile photo, and API key management.

URL: https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/cascade-basics/account-settings.html
category: Cascade Basics
article-type: concept
content-kind: article
release-availability: all
tags: basics, account
updated: 2026-10-06

Your account settings are accessible from anywhere in Cascade CMS and let you configure preferences, manage your API key, and more.

## Overview

![The user menu expanded in the upper-right corner of Cascade CMS, showing Starred, History, Notifications, Tasks, Settings, API Key, and Sign Out](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/_files/images/cascade-basics/user-menu-dropdown.png)

To access your account settings, click on the letter representing your name (or your profile picture if you have one set) in the upper-right corner. The following options are available:

- **Starred** — View your starred assets in the My Content area.
- **History** — View your recently-visited assets in the My Content area.
- **Notifications** — View your notifications such as workflow notifications, publish reports, and user mentions.
- **Tasks** — View tasks that are assigned to you.
- **Settings** — Configure preferences for how you interact with Cascade CMS.
- **API Key** — Manage your API Key used to authenticate with scripts and applications.
- **Sign Out** — Log out of Cascade CMS. After a period of inactivity set by your CMS administrator, you'll be logged out automatically.

## Account Settings

To access your account settings, click on the user menu button and then click **Settings**. The following settings are available:

- **Appearance of Asset Links** — View assets by either their Title/Display Name or their system name in Cascade CMS.
- **Daily Content Report** — Subscribe or unsubscribe from the Daily Content Report if it's enabled for your system.
- **Default Site** — Choose your default site to pre-filter new dashboard widgets and reports to display data from this site.
- **Notification Duration** — Adjust the duration of notifications displayed within the interface.
- **Change Password** — If your organization uses Active Directory, LDAP, or something similar for logging in users, you won't see this option.
- **Change Profile Photo** — Drag and drop an image file or choose one from your computer to create a profile image.

> **Notes**
>
> The maximum size for profile images is 1.04MB.
>
> Changing your password will invalidate "Remember me" functionality across all browsers. You will need to log in again in order to use the "Remember me" feature for future sessions.

## API Key

Your API Key is unique to your user account and can be used to authenticate with Web Services scripts and applications in place of a traditional username and password.

- **Generate a new key** — Opens a dialog which displays a new, unique API Key. This key is only shown once and can't be retrieved again, so be sure to store it somewhere safe.
- **Regenerate** — If you lose your API Key, you can regenerate it. The generated key will only be shown once.
- **Revoke** — If you no longer need your API Key, you can revoke it entirely. Once revoked, scripts and applications must authenticate using a traditional username and password.

Once an API Key is generated, the following information will be provided:

- **Preview** — A preview of the beginning of your API Key.
- **Generated at** — The date that your current API Key was generated. For security purposes, you may wish to periodically regenerate your API Key.