Visual Studio Settings file - how does it work?

Question

Hi

I do not understand the following things:

1. What is the difference between app.config (applicationname.exe.config) and settings file ?
2. I am unable to locate the *.settings file in Windows7 AppData directory under the specific account (I heard that it should be located somewhere over there) ?
3. Let's assume that *.settings file is somewhere on the hard drive. Why on the development time the data from settings file are copied to application config file?

Kind Regards PK

Answer 1

1. The app.config file represents settings intrinsic to the application, and will apply to all sessions of the application. The *.settings file is typically for settings specific to a given user's use of an application.

2. Try looking in the Application Data directory beneath Local Settings [«username»\Local Settings\Application Data\«app name ...»], instead of the user's direct Application Data directory [«username»\Application Data].

3. The copy of the settings in the app.config file for a given *.settings file are used to initialize it the first time those settings are used; including the case when a new setting is added and a prior copy of the *.settings file doesn't have the new setting yet.

Here is a link for a brief walk-through of settings in C#.

Using Settings in C# (MSDN)