  We study the optimization of a neutrino factory with respect to non-standard
neutral current neutrino interactions, and compare the results to those
obtained without non-standard interactions. We discuss the muon energy,
baselines, and oscillation channels as degrees of freedom. Our conclusions are
based on both analytical calculations and on a full numerical simulation of the
neutrino factory setup proposed by the international design study (IDS-NF). We
consider all possible non-standard parameters, and include their complex
phases. We identify the impact of the different parameters on the golden,
silver, and disappearance channels. We come to the conclusion that, even in the
presence of non-standard interactions, the performance of the neutrino factory
hardly profits from a silver channel detector, unless the muon energy is
significantly increased compared to the IDS-NF setup. Apart from the
dispensable silver channel detector, we demonstrate that the IDS-NF setup is
close to optimal even if non-standard interactions are considered. We find that
one very long baseline is a key component in the search for non-standard
interactions, in particular for |\epsilon^m_{\mu\tau}| and
|\epsilon^m_{\tau\tau}|.
