An indicia reader configured for hand held operation by a user comprising: a scanning engine for scanning information bearing indicia and providing output image signals representative thereof; at least one memory space for storing: output scan signals; at least one operating program for controlling operation of the indicia reader; a plurality of configuration settings; a tracking program for tracking and saving the configuration settings that achieve successful IBI reads most often; a configuration changing program for changing the configuration settings; and, at least one processor for executing: the at least one operating program in accordance with the configuration settings, the tracking program, and the configuration changing program, characterised by at least one decoding program stored in said at least one memory space for execution by said at least one processor for decoding IBIs, and further characterised in that the at least one processor is arranged to execute the configuration setting program to change configuration settings in response to the tracking program independent of user input in a predetermined sequence, and in that the predetermined sequence is changeable by the user. a scanning engine for scanning information bearing indicia and providing output image signals representative thereof; at least one memory space for storing: output scan signals; at least one operating program for controlling operation of the indicia reader; a plurality of configuration settings; a tracking program for tracking and saving the configuration settings that achieve successful IBI reads most often; a configuration changing program for changing the configuration settings; and, output scan signals; at least one operating program for controlling operation of the indicia reader; a plurality of configuration settings; a tracking program for tracking and saving the configuration settings that achieve successful IBI reads most often; a configuration changing program for changing the configuration settings; and, at least one processor for executing: the at least one operating program in accordance with the configuration settings, the tracking program, and the configuration changing program, characterised by at least one decoding program stored in said at least one memory space for execution by said at least one processor for decoding IBIs, and further characterised in that the at least one processor is arranged to execute the configuration setting program to change configuration settings in response to the tracking program independent of user input in a predetermined sequence, and in that the predetermined sequence is changeable by the user. the at least one operating program in accordance with the configuration settings, the tracking program, and the configuration changing program, characterised by at least one decoding program stored in said at least one memory space for execution by said at least one processor for decoding IBIs, and further characterised in that the at least one processor is arranged to execute the configuration setting program to change configuration settings in response to the tracking program independent of user input in a predetermined sequence, and in that the predetermined sequence is changeable by the user.