How can I save application settings in a Windows Forms application

Question

What I want to achieve is very simple  I have a Windows Forms   NET 3 5  application that uses a path for reading information  This path can be modified by the user  by using the options form I provide   Now  I want to save the path value to a file for later use  This would be one of the many settings saved to this file  This file would sit directly in the application folder   I understand three options are available    ConfigurationSettings file  appname exe config  Registry Custom XML file   I read that the  NET configuration file is not foreseen for saving values back to it  As for the registry  I would like to get as far away from it as possible   Does this mean that I should use a custom XML file to save configuration settings   If so  I would like to see code example of that  C     I have seen other discussions on this subject  but it is still not clear to me

User · Answer

The ApplicationSettings class doesn t support saving settings to the app config file  That s very much by design  applications that run with a properly secured user account  think Vista UAC  do not have write access to the program s installation folder   You can fight the system with the ConfigurationManager class  But the trivial workaround is to go into the Settings designer and change the setting s scope to User  If that causes hardships  say  the setting is relevant to every user   you should put your Options feature in a separate program so you can ask for the privilege elevation prompt  Or forego using a setting

User · Answer

The registry is a no-go  You re not sure whether the user which uses your application  has sufficient rights to write to the registry   You can use the app config file to save application-level settings  that are the same for each user who uses your application    I would store user-specific settings in an XML file  which would be saved in Isolated Storage or in the SpecialFolder ApplicationData directory   Next to that  as from  NET 2 0  it is possible to store values back to the app config file

User · Answer

A simple way is to use a configuration data object  save it as an XML file with the name of the application in the local Folder and on startup read it back   Here is an example to store the position and size of a form   The configuration dataobject is strongly typed and easy to use    Serializable    public class CConfigDO       private System Drawing Point m oStartPos      private System Drawing Size m oStartSize       public System Drawing Point StartPos               get   return m oStartPos            set   m oStartPos   value               public System Drawing Size StartSize               get   return m oStartSize            set   m oStartSize   value              A manager class for saving and loading   public class CConfigMng       private string m sConfigFileName   System IO Path GetFileNameWithoutExtension System Windows Forms Application ExecutablePath      xml       private CConfigDO m oConfig   new CConfigDO         public CConfigDO Config               get   return m oConfig            set   m oConfig   value                  Load configuration file     public void LoadConfig                 if  System IO File Exists m sConfigFileName                         System IO StreamReader srReader   System IO File OpenText m sConfigFileName               Type tType   m oConfig GetType                System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer xsSerializer   new System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer tType               object oData   xsSerializer Deserialize srReader               m oConfig    CConfigDO oData              srReader Close                            Save configuration file     public void SaveConfig                 System IO StreamWriter swWriter   System IO File CreateText m sConfigFileName           Type tType   m oConfig GetType            if  tType IsSerializable                        System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer xsSerializer   new System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer tType               xsSerializer Serialize swWriter  m oConfig               swWriter Close                        Now you can create an instance and use in your form s load and close events       private CConfigMng oConfigMng   new CConfigMng         private void Form1 Load object sender  EventArgs e                   Load configuration         oConfigMng LoadConfig            if  oConfigMng Config StartPos X    0    oConfigMng Config StartPos Y    0                        Location   oConfigMng Config StartPos              Size   oConfigMng Config StartSize                       private void Form1 FormClosed object sender  FormClosedEventArgs e                   Save configuration         oConfigMng Config StartPos   Location          oConfigMng Config StartSize   Size          oConfigMng SaveConfig            And the produced XML file is also readable    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt CConfigDO xmlns xsi  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema-instance  xmlns xsd  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema  gt     lt StartPos gt       lt X gt 70 lt  X gt       lt Y gt 278 lt  Y gt     lt  StartPos gt     lt StartSize gt       lt Width gt 253 lt  Width gt       lt Height gt 229 lt  Height gt     lt  StartSize gt   lt  CConfigDO gt

User · Answer

I wanted to share a library I ve built for this  It s a tiny library  but a big improvement  IMHO  over  settings files   The library is called Jot  GitHub   Here is an old The Code Project article I wrote about it   Here s how you d use it to keep track of a window s size and location   public MainWindow         InitializeComponent          stateTracker Configure this           IdentifyAs  MyMainWindow            AddProperties nameof Height   nameof Width   nameof Left   nameof Top   nameof WindowState            RegisterPersistTrigger nameof Closed            Apply        The benefit compared to  settings files  There s considerably less code  and it s a lot less error-prone since you only need to mention each property once   With a settings files you need to mention each property five times  once when you explicitly create the property and an additional four times in the code that copies the values back and forth   Storage  serialization  etc  are completely configurable  When the target objects are created by an IoC container  you can  hook it up    so that it applies tracking automatically to all objects it resolves  so that all you need to do to make a property persistent is slap a  Trackable  attribute on it   It s highly configurable  and you can configure  - when data is persisted and applied globally or for each tracked object - how it s serialized - where it s stored  e g  file  database  online  isolated storage  registry  - rules that can cancel applying persisting data for a property  Trust me  the library is top notch

User · Answer

The ApplicationSettings class doesn t support saving settings to the app config file  That s very much by design  applications that run with a properly secured user account  think Vista UAC  do not have write access to the program s installation folder   You can fight the system with the ConfigurationManager class  But the trivial workaround is to go into the Settings designer and change the setting s scope to User  If that causes hardships  say  the setting is relevant to every user   you should put your Options feature in a separate program so you can ask for the privilege elevation prompt  Or forego using a setting

User · Answer

public static class SettingsExtensions       public static bool TryGetValue lt T gt  this Settings settings  string key  out T value                if  settings Properties key     null                        value    T  settings key               return true                     value   default T           return false             public static bool ContainsKey this Settings settings  string key                return settings Properties key     null             public static void SetValue lt T gt  this Settings settings  string key  T value                if  settings Properties key     null                        var p   new SettingsProperty key                                PropertyType   typeof T                   Provider   settings Providers  LocalFileSettingsProvider                    SerializeAs   SettingsSerializeAs Xml                            p Attributes Add typeof UserScopedSettingAttribute   new UserScopedSettingAttribute                 var v   new SettingsPropertyValue p               settings Properties Add p               settings Reload                      settings key    value          settings Save

User · Answer

The registry is a no-go  You re not sure whether the user which uses your application  has sufficient rights to write to the registry   You can use the app config file to save application-level settings  that are the same for each user who uses your application    I would store user-specific settings in an XML file  which would be saved in Isolated Storage or in the SpecialFolder ApplicationData directory   Next to that  as from  NET 2 0  it is possible to store values back to the app config file

User · Answer

If you work with Visual Studio then it is pretty easy to get persistable settings  Right click on the project in Solution Explorer and choose Properties  Select the Settings tab and click on the hyperlink if settings doesn t exist   Use the Settings tab to create application settings  Visual Studio creates the files Settings settings and Settings Designer settings that contain the singleton class Settings inherited from  ApplicationSettingsBase  You can access this class from your code to read write application settings   Properties Settings Default  SomeProperty      Some Value   Properties Settings Default Save       Saves settings in application configuration file   This technique is applicable both for console  Windows Forms  and other project types   Note that you need to set the scope property of your settings  If you select Application scope then Settings Default  lt your property  will be read-only   Reference  How To  Write User Settings at Run Time with C  - Microsoft Docs

User · Answer

I wanted to share a library I ve built for this  It s a tiny library  but a big improvement  IMHO  over  settings files   The library is called Jot  GitHub   Here is an old The Code Project article I wrote about it   Here s how you d use it to keep track of a window s size and location   public MainWindow         InitializeComponent          stateTracker Configure this           IdentifyAs  MyMainWindow            AddProperties nameof Height   nameof Width   nameof Left   nameof Top   nameof WindowState            RegisterPersistTrigger nameof Closed            Apply        The benefit compared to  settings files  There s considerably less code  and it s a lot less error-prone since you only need to mention each property once   With a settings files you need to mention each property five times  once when you explicitly create the property and an additional four times in the code that copies the values back and forth   Storage  serialization  etc  are completely configurable  When the target objects are created by an IoC container  you can  hook it up    so that it applies tracking automatically to all objects it resolves  so that all you need to do to make a property persistent is slap a  Trackable  attribute on it   It s highly configurable  and you can configure  - when data is persisted and applied globally or for each tracked object - how it s serialized - where it s stored  e g  file  database  online  isolated storage  registry  - rules that can cancel applying persisting data for a property  Trust me  the library is top notch

User · Answer

Sometimes you want to get rid of those settings kept in the traditional web config or app config file  You want more fine grained control over the deployment of your settings entries and separated data design  Or the requirement is to enable adding new entries at runtime   I can imagine two good options    The strongly typed version and The object oriented version    The advantage of the strongly typed version are the strongly typed settings names and values  There is no risk of intermixing names or data types  The disadvantage is that more settings have to be coded  cannot be added at runtime   With the object oriented version the advantage is that new settings can be added at runtime  But you do not have strongly typed names and values  Must be careful with string identifiers  Must know data type saved earlier when getting a value   You can find the code of both fully functional implementations HERE

User · Answer

Yes  it is possible to save the configuration - but it pretty much depends on the way you choose to do it  Let me describe the technical differences so you can understand the options you have   First  you need to distinguish  whether you want to use applicationSettings or AppSettings in your   exe config aka App config in Visual Studio  file - there are fundamental differences  being described here   Both provide different ways of saving changes     The AppSettings allow you to read and write directly into the config file  via config Save ConfigurationSaveMode Modified    where config is defined as config   ConfigurationManager OpenExeConfiguration ConfigurationUserLevel None     The applicationSettings allow to read  but if you write changes  via Properties Settings Default Save     it will be written on a per-user basis  stored in a special place  e g  C  Documents and Settings USERID Local Settings Application Data FIRMNAME WindowsFormsTestApplicati Url tdq2oylz33rzq00sxhvxucu5edw2oghw 1 0 0 0   As Hans Passant mentioned in his answer  this is because a user usually has restricted rights to Program Files and cannot write to it without invoking the UAC prompt  A disadvantage is if you re adding configuration keys in the future you need to synchronize them with every user profile    Note  As mentioned in the question  there is a 3rd option  If you treat the configuration file as XML document  you can load  modify and save it by using the System Xml Linq XDocument class  It is not required to use a custom XML file  you can read the existing config file  for querying elements  you can even use Linq queries  I have given an example here  check out the function GetApplicationSetting there in the answer   If you require encryption to protect your values  check out this answer

User · Answer

As far as I can tell   NET does support persisting settings using the built-in application settings facility      The Application Settings feature of Windows Forms makes it easy to create  store  and maintain custom application and user preferences on the client computer  With Windows Forms application settings  you can store not only application data such as database connection strings  but also user-specific data  such as user application preferences  Using Visual Studio or custom managed code  you can create new settings  read them from and write them to disk  bind them to properties on your forms  and validate settings data prior to loading and saving     -  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library k4s6c3a0 aspx

User · Answer

If you are planning on saving to a file within the same directory as your executable  here s a nice solution that uses the JSON format   using System  using System IO  using System Web Script Serialization   namespace MiscConsole       class Program               static void Main string   args                        MySettings settings   MySettings Load                Console WriteLine  Current value of  myInteger       settings myInteger               Console WriteLine  Incrementing  myInteger                    settings myInteger                Console WriteLine  Saving settings                   settings Save                Console WriteLine  Done                 Console ReadKey                       class MySettings   AppSettings lt MySettings gt                        public string myString    Hello World               public int myInteger   1                       public class AppSettings lt T gt  where T   new                 private const string DEFAULT FILENAME    settings json            public void Save string fileName   DEFAULT FILENAME                        File WriteAllText fileName   new JavaScriptSerializer    Serialize this                       public static void Save T pSettings  string fileName   DEFAULT FILENAME                        File WriteAllText fileName   new JavaScriptSerializer    Serialize pSettings                       public static T Load string fileName   DEFAULT FILENAME                        T t   new T                if File Exists fileName                   t    new JavaScriptSerializer    Deserialize lt T gt  File ReadAllText fileName                return t

User · Answer

As far as I can tell   NET does support persisting settings using the built-in application settings facility      The Application Settings feature of Windows Forms makes it easy to create  store  and maintain custom application and user preferences on the client computer  With Windows Forms application settings  you can store not only application data such as database connection strings  but also user-specific data  such as user application preferences  Using Visual Studio or custom managed code  you can create new settings  read them from and write them to disk  bind them to properties on your forms  and validate settings data prior to loading and saving     -  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library k4s6c3a0 aspx

User · Answer

Does this mean that I should use a custom XML file to save configuration settings   No  not necessarily  We use SharpConfig for such operations   For instance  if a configuration file is like that   General    a comment SomeString   Hello World  SomeInteger   10   an inline comment   We can retrieve values like this  var config   Configuration LoadFromFile  sample cfg    var section   config  General     string someString   section  SomeString   StringValue  int someInteger   section  SomeInteger   IntValue    It is compatible with  NET 2 0 and higher  We can create configuration files on the fly and we can save it later   Source  http   sharpconfig net   GitHub  https   github com cemdervis SharpConfig

User · Answer

If you work with Visual Studio then it is pretty easy to get persistable settings  Right click on the project in Solution Explorer and choose Properties  Select the Settings tab and click on the hyperlink if settings doesn t exist   Use the Settings tab to create application settings  Visual Studio creates the files Settings settings and Settings Designer settings that contain the singleton class Settings inherited from  ApplicationSettingsBase  You can access this class from your code to read write application settings   Properties Settings Default  SomeProperty      Some Value   Properties Settings Default Save       Saves settings in application configuration file   This technique is applicable both for console  Windows Forms  and other project types   Note that you need to set the scope property of your settings  If you select Application scope then Settings Default  lt your property  will be read-only   Reference  How To  Write User Settings at Run Time with C  - Microsoft Docs

User · Answer

A simple way is to use a configuration data object  save it as an XML file with the name of the application in the local Folder and on startup read it back   Here is an example to store the position and size of a form   The configuration dataobject is strongly typed and easy to use    Serializable    public class CConfigDO       private System Drawing Point m oStartPos      private System Drawing Size m oStartSize       public System Drawing Point StartPos               get   return m oStartPos            set   m oStartPos   value               public System Drawing Size StartSize               get   return m oStartSize            set   m oStartSize   value              A manager class for saving and loading   public class CConfigMng       private string m sConfigFileName   System IO Path GetFileNameWithoutExtension System Windows Forms Application ExecutablePath      xml       private CConfigDO m oConfig   new CConfigDO         public CConfigDO Config               get   return m oConfig            set   m oConfig   value                  Load configuration file     public void LoadConfig                 if  System IO File Exists m sConfigFileName                         System IO StreamReader srReader   System IO File OpenText m sConfigFileName               Type tType   m oConfig GetType                System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer xsSerializer   new System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer tType               object oData   xsSerializer Deserialize srReader               m oConfig    CConfigDO oData              srReader Close                            Save configuration file     public void SaveConfig                 System IO StreamWriter swWriter   System IO File CreateText m sConfigFileName           Type tType   m oConfig GetType            if  tType IsSerializable                        System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer xsSerializer   new System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer tType               xsSerializer Serialize swWriter  m oConfig               swWriter Close                        Now you can create an instance and use in your form s load and close events       private CConfigMng oConfigMng   new CConfigMng         private void Form1 Load object sender  EventArgs e                   Load configuration         oConfigMng LoadConfig            if  oConfigMng Config StartPos X    0    oConfigMng Config StartPos Y    0                        Location   oConfigMng Config StartPos              Size   oConfigMng Config StartSize                       private void Form1 FormClosed object sender  FormClosedEventArgs e                   Save configuration         oConfigMng Config StartPos   Location          oConfigMng Config StartSize   Size          oConfigMng SaveConfig            And the produced XML file is also readable    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt CConfigDO xmlns xsi  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema-instance  xmlns xsd  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema  gt     lt StartPos gt       lt X gt 70 lt  X gt       lt Y gt 278 lt  Y gt     lt  StartPos gt     lt StartSize gt       lt Width gt 253 lt  Width gt       lt Height gt 229 lt  Height gt     lt  StartSize gt   lt  CConfigDO gt

User · Answer

If you are planning on saving to a file within the same directory as your executable  here s a nice solution that uses the JSON format   using System  using System IO  using System Web Script Serialization   namespace MiscConsole       class Program               static void Main string   args                        MySettings settings   MySettings Load                Console WriteLine  Current value of  myInteger       settings myInteger               Console WriteLine  Incrementing  myInteger                    settings myInteger                Console WriteLine  Saving settings                   settings Save                Console WriteLine  Done                 Console ReadKey                       class MySettings   AppSettings lt MySettings gt                        public string myString    Hello World               public int myInteger   1                       public class AppSettings lt T gt  where T   new                 private const string DEFAULT FILENAME    settings json            public void Save string fileName   DEFAULT FILENAME                        File WriteAllText fileName   new JavaScriptSerializer    Serialize this                       public static void Save T pSettings  string fileName   DEFAULT FILENAME                        File WriteAllText fileName   new JavaScriptSerializer    Serialize pSettings                       public static T Load string fileName   DEFAULT FILENAME                        T t   new T                if File Exists fileName                   t    new JavaScriptSerializer    Deserialize lt T gt  File ReadAllText fileName                return t

User · Answer

public static class SettingsExtensions       public static bool TryGetValue lt T gt  this Settings settings  string key  out T value                if  settings Properties key     null                        value    T  settings key               return true                     value   default T           return false             public static bool ContainsKey this Settings settings  string key                return settings Properties key     null             public static void SetValue lt T gt  this Settings settings  string key  T value                if  settings Properties key     null                        var p   new SettingsProperty key                                PropertyType   typeof T                   Provider   settings Providers  LocalFileSettingsProvider                    SerializeAs   SettingsSerializeAs Xml                            p Attributes Add typeof UserScopedSettingAttribute   new UserScopedSettingAttribute                 var v   new SettingsPropertyValue p               settings Properties Add p               settings Reload                      settings key    value          settings Save

User · Answer

If you work with Visual Studio then it is pretty easy to get persistable settings  Right click on the project in Solution Explorer and choose Properties  Select the Settings tab and click on the hyperlink if settings doesn t exist   Use the Settings tab to create application settings  Visual Studio creates the files Settings settings and Settings Designer settings that contain the singleton class Settings inherited from  ApplicationSettingsBase  You can access this class from your code to read write application settings   Properties Settings Default  SomeProperty      Some Value   Properties Settings Default Save       Saves settings in application configuration file   This technique is applicable both for console  Windows Forms  and other project types   Note that you need to set the scope property of your settings  If you select Application scope then Settings Default  lt your property  will be read-only   Reference  How To  Write User Settings at Run Time with C  - Microsoft Docs

User · Answer

The registry is a no-go  You re not sure whether the user which uses your application  has sufficient rights to write to the registry   You can use the app config file to save application-level settings  that are the same for each user who uses your application    I would store user-specific settings in an XML file  which would be saved in Isolated Storage or in the SpecialFolder ApplicationData directory   Next to that  as from  NET 2 0  it is possible to store values back to the app config file

User · Answer

The registry configurationSettings XML argument still seems very active  I ve used them all  as the technology has progressed  but my favourite is based on Threed s system combined with Isolated Storage   The following sample allows storage of an objects named properties to a file in isolated storage  Such as   AppSettings Save myobject   Prop1 Prop2    myFile jsn      Properties may be recovered using   AppSettings Load myobject   myFile jsn      It is just a sample  not suggestive of best practices   internal static class AppSettings       internal static void Save object src  string targ  string fileName                Dictionary lt string  object gt  items   new Dictionary lt string  object gt             Type type   src GetType             string   paramList   targ Split new char                     foreach  string paramName in paramList              items Add paramName  type GetProperty paramName Trim    GetValue src  null             try                          GetUserStoreForApplication doesn t work - can t identify                 application unless published by ClickOnce or Silverlight             IsolatedStorageFile storage   IsolatedStorageFile GetUserStoreForAssembly                using  IsolatedStorageFileStream stream   new IsolatedStorageFileStream fileName  FileMode Create  storage               using  StreamWriter writer   new StreamWriter stream                                 writer Write  new JavaScriptSerializer    Serialize items                                     catch  Exception           If fails - just don t use preferences            internal static void Load object tar  string fileName                Dictionary lt string  object gt  items   new Dictionary lt string  object gt             Type type   tar GetType             try                          GetUserStoreForApplication doesn t work - can t identify                application unless published by ClickOnce or Silverlight             IsolatedStorageFile storage   IsolatedStorageFile GetUserStoreForAssembly                using  IsolatedStorageFileStream stream   new IsolatedStorageFileStream fileName  FileMode Open  storage               using  StreamReader reader   new StreamReader stream                                 items    new JavaScriptSerializer    Deserialize lt Dictionary lt string  object gt  gt  reader ReadToEnd                                     catch  Exception    return         If fails - just don t use preferences           foreach  KeyValuePair lt string  object gt  obj in items                        try                               tar GetType   GetProperty obj Key  SetValue tar  obj Value  null                             catch  Exception

User · Answer

Other options  instead of using a custom XML file  we can use a more user friendly file format  JSON or YAML file    If you use  NET 4 0 dynamic  this library is really easy to use  serialize  deserialize  nested objects support and ordering output as you wish   merging multiple settings to one  JsonConfig  usage is equivalent to ApplicationSettingsBase  For  NET YAML configuration library    I haven t found one that is as easy to use as JsonConfig   You can store your settings file in multiple special folders  for all users and per user  as listed here Environment SpecialFolder Enumeration and multiple files  default read only  per role  per user  etc     Sample for getting path of special folder  C  getting the path of  AppData    If you choose to use multiple settings  you can merge those settings  For example  merging settings for default   BasicUser   AdminUser  You can use your own rules  the last one overrides the value  etc

User · Answer

If you work with Visual Studio then it is pretty easy to get persistable settings  Right click on the project in Solution Explorer and choose Properties  Select the Settings tab and click on the hyperlink if settings doesn t exist   Use the Settings tab to create application settings  Visual Studio creates the files Settings settings and Settings Designer settings that contain the singleton class Settings inherited from  ApplicationSettingsBase  You can access this class from your code to read write application settings   Properties Settings Default  SomeProperty      Some Value   Properties Settings Default Save       Saves settings in application configuration file   This technique is applicable both for console  Windows Forms  and other project types   Note that you need to set the scope property of your settings  If you select Application scope then Settings Default  lt your property  will be read-only   Reference  How To  Write User Settings at Run Time with C  - Microsoft Docs

User · Answer

The registry configurationSettings XML argument still seems very active  I ve used them all  as the technology has progressed  but my favourite is based on Threed s system combined with Isolated Storage   The following sample allows storage of an objects named properties to a file in isolated storage  Such as   AppSettings Save myobject   Prop1 Prop2    myFile jsn      Properties may be recovered using   AppSettings Load myobject   myFile jsn      It is just a sample  not suggestive of best practices   internal static class AppSettings       internal static void Save object src  string targ  string fileName                Dictionary lt string  object gt  items   new Dictionary lt string  object gt             Type type   src GetType             string   paramList   targ Split new char                     foreach  string paramName in paramList              items Add paramName  type GetProperty paramName Trim    GetValue src  null             try                          GetUserStoreForApplication doesn t work - can t identify                 application unless published by ClickOnce or Silverlight             IsolatedStorageFile storage   IsolatedStorageFile GetUserStoreForAssembly                using  IsolatedStorageFileStream stream   new IsolatedStorageFileStream fileName  FileMode Create  storage               using  StreamWriter writer   new StreamWriter stream                                 writer Write  new JavaScriptSerializer    Serialize items                                     catch  Exception           If fails - just don t use preferences            internal static void Load object tar  string fileName                Dictionary lt string  object gt  items   new Dictionary lt string  object gt             Type type   tar GetType             try                          GetUserStoreForApplication doesn t work - can t identify                application unless published by ClickOnce or Silverlight             IsolatedStorageFile storage   IsolatedStorageFile GetUserStoreForAssembly                using  IsolatedStorageFileStream stream   new IsolatedStorageFileStream fileName  FileMode Open  storage               using  StreamReader reader   new StreamReader stream                                 items    new JavaScriptSerializer    Deserialize lt Dictionary lt string  object gt  gt  reader ReadToEnd                                     catch  Exception    return         If fails - just don t use preferences           foreach  KeyValuePair lt string  object gt  obj in items                        try                               tar GetType   GetProperty obj Key  SetValue tar  obj Value  null                             catch  Exception

User · Answer

The ApplicationSettings class doesn t support saving settings to the app config file  That s very much by design  applications that run with a properly secured user account  think Vista UAC  do not have write access to the program s installation folder   You can fight the system with the ConfigurationManager class  But the trivial workaround is to go into the Settings designer and change the setting s scope to User  If that causes hardships  say  the setting is relevant to every user   you should put your Options feature in a separate program so you can ask for the privilege elevation prompt  Or forego using a setting

User · Answer

Sometimes you want to get rid of those settings kept in the traditional web config or app config file  You want more fine grained control over the deployment of your settings entries and separated data design  Or the requirement is to enable adding new entries at runtime   I can imagine two good options    The strongly typed version and The object oriented version    The advantage of the strongly typed version are the strongly typed settings names and values  There is no risk of intermixing names or data types  The disadvantage is that more settings have to be coded  cannot be added at runtime   With the object oriented version the advantage is that new settings can be added at runtime  But you do not have strongly typed names and values  Must be careful with string identifiers  Must know data type saved earlier when getting a value   You can find the code of both fully functional implementations HERE

User · Answer

Yes  it is possible to save the configuration - but it pretty much depends on the way you choose to do it  Let me describe the technical differences so you can understand the options you have   First  you need to distinguish  whether you want to use applicationSettings or AppSettings in your   exe config aka App config in Visual Studio  file - there are fundamental differences  being described here   Both provide different ways of saving changes     The AppSettings allow you to read and write directly into the config file  via config Save ConfigurationSaveMode Modified    where config is defined as config   ConfigurationManager OpenExeConfiguration ConfigurationUserLevel None     The applicationSettings allow to read  but if you write changes  via Properties Settings Default Save     it will be written on a per-user basis  stored in a special place  e g  C  Documents and Settings USERID Local Settings Application Data FIRMNAME WindowsFormsTestApplicati Url tdq2oylz33rzq00sxhvxucu5edw2oghw 1 0 0 0   As Hans Passant mentioned in his answer  this is because a user usually has restricted rights to Program Files and cannot write to it without invoking the UAC prompt  A disadvantage is if you re adding configuration keys in the future you need to synchronize them with every user profile    Note  As mentioned in the question  there is a 3rd option  If you treat the configuration file as XML document  you can load  modify and save it by using the System Xml Linq XDocument class  It is not required to use a custom XML file  you can read the existing config file  for querying elements  you can even use Linq queries  I have given an example here  check out the function GetApplicationSetting there in the answer   If you require encryption to protect your values  check out this answer

User · Answer

As far as I can tell   NET does support persisting settings using the built-in application settings facility      The Application Settings feature of Windows Forms makes it easy to create  store  and maintain custom application and user preferences on the client computer  With Windows Forms application settings  you can store not only application data such as database connection strings  but also user-specific data  such as user application preferences  Using Visual Studio or custom managed code  you can create new settings  read them from and write them to disk  bind them to properties on your forms  and validate settings data prior to loading and saving     -  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library k4s6c3a0 aspx

User · Answer

The registry is a no-go  You re not sure whether the user which uses your application  has sufficient rights to write to the registry   You can use the app config file to save application-level settings  that are the same for each user who uses your application    I would store user-specific settings in an XML file  which would be saved in Isolated Storage or in the SpecialFolder ApplicationData directory   Next to that  as from  NET 2 0  it is possible to store values back to the app config file

User · Answer

The ApplicationSettings class doesn t support saving settings to the app config file  That s very much by design  applications that run with a properly secured user account  think Vista UAC  do not have write access to the program s installation folder   You can fight the system with the ConfigurationManager class  But the trivial workaround is to go into the Settings designer and change the setting s scope to User  If that causes hardships  say  the setting is relevant to every user   you should put your Options feature in a separate program so you can ask for the privilege elevation prompt  Or forego using a setting

User · Answer

Does this mean that I should use a custom XML file to save configuration settings   No  not necessarily  We use SharpConfig for such operations   For instance  if a configuration file is like that   General    a comment SomeString   Hello World  SomeInteger   10   an inline comment   We can retrieve values like this  var config   Configuration LoadFromFile  sample cfg    var section   config  General     string someString   section  SomeString   StringValue  int someInteger   section  SomeInteger   IntValue    It is compatible with  NET 2 0 and higher  We can create configuration files on the fly and we can save it later   Source  http   sharpconfig net   GitHub  https   github com cemdervis SharpConfig

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Other options  instead of using a custom XML file  we can use a more user friendly file format  JSON or YAML file    If you use  NET 4 0 dynamic  this library is really easy to use  serialize  deserialize  nested objects support and ordering output as you wish   merging multiple settings to one  JsonConfig  usage is equivalent to ApplicationSettingsBase  For  NET YAML configuration library    I haven t found one that is as easy to use as JsonConfig   You can store your settings file in multiple special folders  for all users and per user  as listed here Environment SpecialFolder Enumeration and multiple files  default read only  per role  per user  etc     Sample for getting path of special folder  C  getting the path of  AppData    If you choose to use multiple settings  you can merge those settings  For example  merging settings for default   BasicUser   AdminUser  You can use your own rules  the last one overrides the value  etc

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I don t like the proposed solution of using web config or app config  Try reading your own XML   Have a look at XML Settings Files     No more web config

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I don t like the proposed solution of using web config or app config  Try reading your own XML   Have a look at XML Settings Files     No more web config

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As far as I can tell   NET does support persisting settings using the built-in application settings facility      The Application Settings feature of Windows Forms makes it easy to create  store  and maintain custom application and user preferences on the client computer  With Windows Forms application settings  you can store not only application data such as database connection strings  but also user-specific data  such as user application preferences  Using Visual Studio or custom managed code  you can create new settings  read them from and write them to disk  bind them to properties on your forms  and validate settings data prior to loading and saving     -  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library k4s6c3a0 aspx

[c#] How can I save application settings in a Windows Forms application?

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