diff --git a/library/Icinga/Application/ApplicationBootstrap.php b/library/Icinga/Application/ApplicationBootstrap.php
index 89597be3d..e9b6028bb 100644
--- a/library/Icinga/Application/ApplicationBootstrap.php
+++ b/library/Icinga/Application/ApplicationBootstrap.php
@@ -151,9 +151,9 @@ abstract class ApplicationBootstrap
                 $configDir = '/etc/icingaweb';
             }
         }
-        $canonical = realpath($configDir);
-        if ($canonical) {
-            $this->configDir = $canonical;
+        $this->configDir = realpath($configDir);
+        if (!$this->configDir) {
+            $this->configDir = '/etc/icingaweb';
         }
 
         $this->setupAutoloader();
diff --git a/library/Icinga/Application/Config.php b/library/Icinga/Application/Config.php
index 8771faa10..7070e982c 100644
--- a/library/Icinga/Application/Config.php
+++ b/library/Icinga/Application/Config.php
@@ -165,6 +165,16 @@ class Config extends Zend_Config
      */
     public static function resolvePath($path)
     {
-        return self::$configDir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . ltrim($path, DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
+        if (Platform::isWindows()) {
+            throw new ProgrammingError('Windows support has not yet been implemented');
+        }
+
+        if (strpos(dirname($path), DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR) === 0) {
+            return $path;
+        }
+
+        $path = self::$configDir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $path;
+        $canonical = realpath($path);
+        return ($canonical === false) ? $path : $canonical;
     }
 }
diff --git a/library/Icinga/User/Preferences/PreferencesStore.php b/library/Icinga/User/Preferences/PreferencesStore.php
index 81d47b394..410e8f26e 100644
--- a/library/Icinga/User/Preferences/PreferencesStore.php
+++ b/library/Icinga/User/Preferences/PreferencesStore.php
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ abstract class PreferencesStore
         }
 
         if ($type === 'Ini') {
-            $config->location = IcingaConfig::resolvePath('preferences');
+            $config->location = $config->config_path;
         } elseif ($type === 'Db') {
             $config->connection = new DbConnection(ResourceFactory::getResourceConfig($config->resource));
         }