Normally Emacs uses <del>the environment variable @env{HOME} (@pxref{General Variables, HOME})</del> <ins>your home directory</ins> to find <del>@file{.emacs};</del> <ins>@file{~/.emacs};</ins> that's what @samp{~} means in a file name.  <ins>@xref{General Variables, HOME}.</ins>  If <del>@file{.emacs}</del> <ins>neither @file{~/.emacs} nor @file{~/.emacs.el}</ins> is <del>not found inside @file{~/} (nor @file{.emacs.el}),</del> <ins>found,</ins> Emacs looks for @file{~/.emacs.d/init.el} (which, like @file{~/.emacs.el}, can be byte-compiled).