No skyrim.ini file?!!?

Question

I'm playing Skyrim (with a Hearthfire DLC) on Windows Vista and I decided I wanted to get mods, so I downloaded Nexus Mod Manager and installed it. Only problem is, whenever I open it up I get this message: 'You have no Skyrim INI file. Please run Skyrim to initialize the file before installing any mods or turning on Archive Invalidation.'
I've already tried to run Steam or Skyrim or NMM as administrator, didn't work. I've already validated the integrity of the game cache TWICE and it said that a file was missing and would be reacquired, so I ran Skyrim and tried NMM again but that didn't work. I uninstalled Skyrim and installed it again. Nothing seems to be working!
I installed Skyrim into Local Files C:/Program files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Skyrim and I have SkyrimPrefs.ini but no Skyrim.ini My save games are in My Games/Skyrim and theres a skyrim.ini there.
Can anybody help? Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Vista OS may have made a "Hidden" file called "Virtual Store Skyrim", for faster playing the Vista PC will play from that "hidden" file.

You need to make all files visible, and then Delete manually the "Virtual Store file" then reinstall the Game.

Answer 2

Have you done a first-run of Skyrim yet? THAT's when SKYRIM.INI is created. If not, try downloading of of the NMM legacy versions.

Answer 3

No modding allowed