How do I create editable configuration settings in a C# WinForms application?

Question

I have configuration values saved in an app.config. I want to create a WinForms application which shows all the AppSettings values in a form. The user should be able to change the settings values and save them back to the app.config.

Answer 1

As long as your values are in the appConfig section of the app.config file, you can simply use System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.

ConfigurationManager.AppSettings - MSDN

Here's an old blog post explaining EXACTLY how to do what you're looking for:

Read/Write App.config

Answer 2

If you store the settings using the Settings.settings file in the Properties folder you can just do:

Properties.Settings s = new Properties.Settings();

And then all the settings will be properties of s (you can define them as a specific type even) and if they're set as user settings you can change them. Just call Reload or Save on the instance of Settings to read/store from/to disk.

Answer 3

I was successful with using the method Justin Niessner suggested. One caveat to watch out for: When you are testing this in visual studio, the app.config itself won't be edited if you are debugging the application. The config file that is modified is the ProjectName.vshost.exe.Config