Confusion on user settings in 2.0 (config vs app.exe.config etc)

Michael was kind enough to help me get a handle on the Application settings in .NET 2.0 in this thread http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx PostID=109943 , but now I have some questions about creating specific user settings that are stored in a config file in <username>Local Settings/Application Data/...

Basically I want a user.config file that I can read and write to. I was able to do this successfuly following this example http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171565, but then I was reading about the user settings that can get added to the appname.exe.config file as described here http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8eyb2ct1

I'm confused because I'm wondering what is the point of having user settings in the app.exe.config file Would this be for cases where you wanted to ship a client application with some preset user settings for different types of users I'm assuming you can't write to this file druing run time like you can with user.config, plus this file will also be overwritten with a new deployment, so I'm not sure what its purpose is

Also, is this the stanadard way to set up a user.config file http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171565

Thanks for any help.

Answer this question

Confusion on user settings in 2.0 (config vs app.exe.config etc)

jchau
Ok this is also very confusing, how come my user.config stores to a directory that looks like:

C:\Documents and Settings\MyUserName\Local Settings\Application Data\CompanyName\ExportImportManager.exe_Url_3sscrxtl4i3loll4yonqc3h2elhu0j4r\1.0.0.0

But my Application.UserAppDataPath is:

C:\Documents and Settings\MyUserName\Application Data\CompanyName\ExportImportManager\1.0.0.0

TIA for any help.
Confusion on user settings in 2.0 (config vs app.exe.config etc)

Answer this question