diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/Preferences.java b/app/src/processing/app/Preferences.java
index 865433cde..8d61ec7ea 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/Preferences.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/Preferences.java
@@ -149,6 +149,14 @@ public class Preferences {
                              "You'll need to reinstall Arduino."), e);
     }
 
+    // set some runtime constants (not saved on preferences file)
+    table.put("runtime.os", PConstants.platformNames[PApplet.platform]);
+    String idePath = System.getProperty("user.dir");
+    if (Base.isMacOS())
+      idePath += "/Arduino.app/Contents/Resources/Java";
+    table.put("runtime.ide.path", idePath);
+    table.put("runtime.ide.version", "" + Base.REVISION);
+    
     // check for platform-specific properties in the defaults
     String platformExt = "." + PConstants.platformNames[PApplet.platform];
     int platformExtLength = platformExt.length();
@@ -607,6 +615,8 @@ public class Preferences {
     Enumeration e = table.keys(); //properties.propertyNames();
     while (e.hasMoreElements()) {
       String key = (String) e.nextElement();
+      if (key.startsWith("runtime."))
+        continue;
       writer.println(key + "=" + ((String) table.get(key)));
     }
 
@@ -782,20 +792,10 @@ public class Preferences {
     return new SyntaxStyle(color, italic, bold, underlined);
   }
   
-  //get a Map of the Preferences
+  // get a copy of the Preferences
   static public PreferencesMap getMap() 
   {
-  	PreferencesMap globalpreferences = new PreferencesMap();
-    Enumeration<String> e = table.keys();
-
-    while (e.hasMoreElements()) 
-    {
-		String key = (String) e.nextElement();
-		String value = (String) table.get(key);
-        globalpreferences.put(key, value);              
-    }
-
-	return globalpreferences;	
+    return new PreferencesMap(table);
   }
   
 }
diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/helpers/PreferencesMap.java b/app/src/processing/app/helpers/PreferencesMap.java
index 0935791d3..13b4bd049 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/helpers/PreferencesMap.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/helpers/PreferencesMap.java
@@ -29,21 +29,26 @@ import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Hashtable;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 import processing.core.PApplet;
 
 public class PreferencesMap extends HashMap<String, String> {
 
-	public PreferencesMap(PreferencesMap prefs) {
-		super(prefs);
+	public PreferencesMap(Hashtable table) {
+		super(table);
 	}
 
+	public PreferencesMap(PreferencesMap prefs) {
+	  super(prefs);
+	}
+	
 	public PreferencesMap() {
 		super();
 	}
 
-	/**
+  /**
 	 * Parse a property list file and put kev/value pairs into the Map
 	 * 
 	 * @param file