VS 2008 - My.Settings File - Specify The Location For User.config File
Jan 3, 2010
I'm looking for a way to specify the location for the User.config file that is used for storing the My.Settings object. It appears that this is not possible. The problem for me is, I don't want to be responsible for creating several different files on the users computer that really have no use and are difficult to find and clean once an update is released. For most users, this is not a serious problem, as many will probably never update the software, and most will probably only go through a couple of updates. On my system, there are config files for every build of the application, and the same to a lesser extent will be true for my beta testers.
I can understand that MS wants to make sure that no two applications will use the same location for storing application data, but a simple [UserData] [CompanyName][ApplicationName] for storing application data will probably suffice for 99.9999 percent of the legitimate applications in the world. Bogging a user's system down with erroneous files, no matter how small, is an unnecessary drain on system resources and a potential source of problems for the user. It's bad enough that most programs leave bits and pieces of themselves all over a user's system after De-installation - this to me seems only to exaggerate this problem.
Is the only way to get around this problem to write a whole new Settings Class? Is there a way to change the location of the UserConfig file to a more friendly (and more predictable) location that I am not finding for myself? It would seem that having at least the OPTION to specify a location for the User.Config file would be OBVIOUS and easy to implement, so why did they leave this out?
I am just not happy with the fact that the user.config file gtets saved in the user's account folder. Is there a way to save it in the Application's Startup Folder instead? I couldn't find any configuration properties within the PROJECT PROPERTIES which would let me change the file location.
I made a project in VB.NET 2008. When I update my project I change the assembly version but the problem is that when the user gets the new version they lose their user settings.[code]Note the version number in the path. Is there any way save in a location not affected by changing the version?
After reading through a bunch of stuff, I was curious what production developers use for config files. I know that there is an app.config file that can be modified by the user of the program w/ settings. I also know I can create my own .xml file or .ini file to store settings as well. I wanted to know from the production side, what do you use and why?
I have created a settings-file for my plug-in-based app. When the mainApp writes the settings to the file, the pluginApp should read the settings from the settings-file (when opening or at runtime even better), but somehow it reads the settings from the app.config-file. This means that the pluginApp never will read the settings according the values of the file.
I am writing an application that will be used to extract information from any one of three different database applications, depending on the option selected. I would also like it to be possible to run it against one of several environments (e.g. development, test or live).
I plan to hold the relevant logon details (in encrypted form, of course) in the app.config file, with the appropriate details selected depending on the environment and application. Rather than have each option hard-coded into a Select Case statement, I want to be able to nest the variables in the app.config. I had envisaged a section of the config file looking like this:
Every time I compile my app and the version number changes (I have an auto-incrementing build number), I lose the user-configured app.config settings, since they're stored in the AppData folder for a specific version. Essentially, every release of my application starts from scratch as far as user settings go.
While this is a mild annoyance in development, it raises the question as I approach deployment/release - if I use the app.config to store my user settings, will the user's personalized settings be hosed every time they install a patch that changes the version number of my app? If so, is there an easy way to "upgrade" the settings from the previous release? I know that using HKCU in the registry is another option, but I like the ease of the My.Settings namespace, and I'd like to stay with app.config.
When I save settings for an application using My.Settings.Save it saves it in %AppData%LocalCompanyname. Because I don't want my app to be installed and I want it to be a just .exe file, and it leaves some files on that computer. I like it to be in my apps location. Can I change that default location?
the My.Settings data is saved in the AppDataLocal folder for a user based on company.Then, inside the company folder there will be a folder for any applications published by that company, which contain the user.config file for that program.
C:Documents and SettingsRobert BurkeLocal SettingsApplication DataSerysoftSysPad.exe_Url_qr40iotmbi1lvvl4b5lecnfpoqogr5uw
The thing is, the folder for each program has a string of random alphanumeric characters at the end. I noticed that on both my XP and Win7 machine, the string is the same. What I am wanting to do is save the user.config file, but the only way to do this, seemingly, would be to hardcode that folder into the path to get the user.config file from.
how that string is generated, and what may possibly cause it to change in other releases even though, so far, it has stayed the same for several of my releases. I don't want to release a version one day and the string change and then it break my program.
My application is a service application, and it needs to load a set of configuration that the user can change. I was using the System.Configuration classes to set up the app.config file, and then I was going to give the user the option of editing this file to change configuration.
Can I move this file to a custom directory, something like C:settingsapp.config? Or is it forced to reside in the app directory?
Im trying to make a program that works a bit like the log in on a computer. But i cant make it load a different .config file depending on what username is used. I want it to load a config file from different directories that match the username. eg if the username was bob then it could be: C:MyProgramLoginBobapp.config I've been teaching myself and this has had me stuck for ages.
I have an application that has a load of values in its app.exe.config file. The application is used by a few users, and the settings would change on a regular basis. so im having to change the config file, and send it out to all users.
I'd love to move the config file to the network somewhere and point the app to this file. ive tried to use;
However, xmlFilePath shows up as Nothing after that line of code is run.
What's the correct code to get a setting out of the web.config file in an ASP.NET application?
NOTE: Although you can add keys individually to the <appsettings> tag, I'm trying to figure out how to use it with the "Settings" tab in the project's properties.
I have been searching and posting regarding this problem and have found nothing to aid me. Discussion is either on web.config files or deal only with external files for connection strings or earlier versions of vb.net not 2008.I have already successfully put connection strings into an external config file, but trying the same approach with application settings has failed.There are two sections of the app.config involved with application settings.
1. the configuration and config sections at the top of the config. file where the section group and the section name are described.
2. the actually data for the application settings by section group section name which appears in the body of the configuraton section of the app.config.[code]
I would like to tweak some of the numbers in the app.exe.config file while the program is running. I would like my program to re-load those valued from the edited txt file.
I have tried my.settings.reset, reload, and upgrade. None of these seem to reload the values from the config file into the program
vs 2005 vb.net
How can i get my program to re-read the config file into its memory once it is up and running. say when a button is clicked?
Is there a simple way to read from the global application.exe.config file from a dll?urrently I am loading the file as an XmlDocument but I wonder if there is a better solution.That's what I mean:If I create a new WinForms Project I have a Settings Tab in the Project properties where I can add some simple values (And I want to access the per Application settings, not the user beased ones).From my code I can access these values with:
The Settings class is autogenerated in the file Settings.Designer.cs.Now I have the case where a dll need's to read the settings from the Main Application's config file. Is there a simple way to achive this? Currently I am reading the file as an XML Document.
I am creating a windows service in VS2010, and in order to store a user's input during installation I've been told to write it to a file called app.config.However i cannot find this app.config file? Does it create one in a windows service project? or just in a WCF windows service project?
Is there a really simple way to save the app.config file to a location then load it again? I'm making a multiclient app. I was planning on having each user have a folder, and in that folder would be their personalized app.config file that would load when they log in. I don't really know any XML.
I recently changed application settings to be in an encrypted config file.The first time I run any application and try to retrieve a setting (My.settings. ...) from the config file I get an Unrecognized attribute 'configProtectionProvider'If I restart the application I don't get an error due to the fact that it doesn't re-encrypt during that run. Why when I run the application for the first time am I getting this error?
I am encrypting the config file on application startup using the following code:
on my program i have an activation in it and in order to activate the program you need to enter a code that is stored in the settings. so i was looking through my computer and i found the programs config file. and so I opened it and i found all of the codes for the activation. I need to find out how to make the file so the user doesn't have access to it and then how to move it to a more hidden place in the C: drive.
1. I can't find the file which reflects changes to user settings. This might be because I just can't find it (I can see a bunch of user.config files but they are all empty - weird!), or...
2. I'm not actually saving them when I think I am.
Regarding 2. - do I need to invoke
Is this all I need? And if so, why are my user.configs empty?
I would like to be able to specify exactly where the My.Settings file gets saved. It bugs me how it gets saved off in the middle of appsettings nowhere, and I would prefer it gets saved where the executable is. If anyone knows how to do this, that would be great. (P.S; I'm using VB.Net.)
I've just started using user settings. This works ok however I'm having problems with the location of user.config.
When I run the project in Studio, user.config seems to be stored in a different place than when I build the project.
In fact every time I build it the location seems to change - users therefore lose their settings every time the project is built, which seems pretty useless.
Is there equivalent for getevn/setenv functions in VB.NET. I have looked at system.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable but it gives the system environment variables like USERNAME, COMPUTERNAME etc. I need to get the variables that are stored in config.user file. Is there any way to do that in VB>NET.
Somehow the User.Config file was corrupted for an instance of my VB .NET app. When access one of my user level config property (My.Settings.MyProp) I get the a ConfigurationErrorsException with the message "Configuration system failed to initialize." I looked at the User.Config file and found that it is empty, it can be opened but there is no XML text contained within.I would like to programmatically fix the file if an exception is seen. When I attempt to use any of my user level properties, I continue to get the same exception. I've tried calling the Reset() but that yeilds the same exception. I then tried Save() to see if it would write out a default version, but it appears to do nothing (the file is not updated). My.Settings appears to be useless at this point.How can I reinitialize the User.Config file to the default config settings without deleting the old file? I would think that there should be some mechanism for restoring this file back to its default. And how can I update/reinitialize the My.Settings instance so that I can access the properties normally?
I have a program that runs fine in the debugger. I started on the project in x86 mode this January and I've always been able to run it outside of the debugger, but this is the first time I've seen this error.The error says "ConfigurationErrorException was unhandled: Configuration system failed to initialize."The InnerException of the error said that the error was in the user.config file, and it gave me the directory of the user.config file that it was using. So I clicked synchronize in the project settings thinking that it would overwrite the current user.config file and that would probably fix the error. When it showed the confirmation dialog that it would delete the user.config file, I noticed that it had "vshost" in the directory.
Don't know if this is possible, but I'd like a config section to be generated when another developer adds my dll to their project. This way they don't have to look up in code or a doc as to what they need to put in their config file.
