Where is the data for Properties.Settings.Default saved?

Question

In my WPF application, I click on Settings.settings in the Solution Explorer and enter a StringCollection variable with a User scope:

in my app.config I see that they are saved there:

<userSettings>     <TestSettings.Properties.Settings>         <setting name="Paths" serializeAs="Xml">             <value>                 <ArrayOfString xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"                     xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">                     <string>one</string>                     <string>two</string>                     <string>three</string>                     <string>four</string>                     <string>five</string>                     <string>six</string>                     <string>seven</string>                 </ArrayOfString>             </value>         </setting>     </TestSettings.Properties.Settings> </userSettings> 

then I run my application and with this code:

StringCollection paths = Properties.Settings.Default.Paths;  Properties.Settings.Default.Paths.Add("added in code"); Properties.Settings.Default.Save();  foreach (var path in paths) {     System.Console.WriteLine(path); } 

which gives me this output:

one two three four five six seven added in code 

I run the application again and it gives me this output:

one two three four five six seven added in code added in code 

But I look at my app.config again and it still has the original values:

<userSettings>     <TestSettings.Properties.Settings>         <setting name="Paths" serializeAs="Xml">             <value>                 <ArrayOfString xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"                     xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">                     <string>one</string>                     <string>two</string>                     <string>three</string>                     <string>four</string>                     <string>five</string>                     <string>six</string>                     <string>seven</string>                 </ArrayOfString>             </value>         </setting>     </TestSettings.Properties.Settings> </userSettings> 

Where are the values that are added by the application being saved?

Answer 1

Since you selected user scope, they are saved in each user profile directory, more specifically, inside the AppData folder of the user profile in a file named user.config.

The full path is dependent of the application.

In Windows 7 without roaming profile and with an Windows Forms Application named Example.Settings.CustomClass I'm getting the following folder:

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Example.Settings.CustomCl_Url_3qoqzcgn1lbyw2zx3oz1o3rsw2anyjsn\1.0.0.0 

Also note that they are saved taking in consideration the version of your application and that the values stored in App.config are the default values used for a new user.

Answer 2

I was looking under Win 10 for the Settings. If anyone else need to know, they are not stored in Subfolder of Microsoft (see previous answer). Just look here:

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Example\Example...\1.0.0.0\