Can you upload the folder so we could see if there actually is something wrong?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\cfg

Is an example of where they should be, autoexec.cfg will execute everytime you open your game and something called "class".cfg will execute every time you change class eg. scout.cfg

Anything else you want to use must either be in another config (eg put "exec config.cfg" in your autoexec) or done manually via console

it's better to use tf/custom/custom_stuff/cfg

neither is better stop spreading misinformation
thanks jarateking, that's actually interesting

exec autoexec

make sure the folder is in the right file path

make sure it is a .cfg file

make sure you don't have a launch option disabling your autoexec

make sure you don't have a duplicate autoexec file anywhere

there is no technical benefit, but for organization's sake, yes it's better to have it in the custom folder. i dont see how that is "misinformation"

There's a technical detriment to it actually. For every folder inside custom (no matter what's inside them) loading times get significantly increased, since the way tf2 loads files is by checking each folder to see if it has them (vpk's are faster for this because they contain a manifest of all files, and rather than individually check everything when something's loading, it just checks if it's on any vpk manifest).

If you already have a folder mod in custom that can't be made into a vpk (huds with custom fonts that aren't installed), you can put it in there without any issues, but it's just a lot easier to say that cfgs should go into the noncustom cfg folder.

And I mean it's not like being inside the cfg folder is disorganized in any way.

well I guess I'm just an idiot, sorry.

as for OP, there is nothing really to go off of here... can you post screenshots or something to demonstrate your problem? just saying "it doesn't work" doesn't really help too much