Where Are the Properties.Settings.Default Stored

Where are the Properties.Settings.Default stored?

In order to work with newer versions of Windows' policy of only allowing read access by default to the Program Files folder (unless you prompt for elevation with UAC, but that's another topic...), your application will have a settings folder under %userprofile%\appdata\local or %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data depending on which version of Windows you're running, for settings that are user specific. If you store settings for all users, then they'll be in the corresponding folder under C:\users or C:\Documents and Settings for all user profiles (ex: C:\users\public\appdata\local).

Properties.Settings.Default.Save(); -> Where is that file

On My Windows XP machine, the settings are saved in a file called user.config somewhere under either C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\ or C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Application Data\

Update:

On Windows Vista and later, the locations have changed to C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\ and C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\

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

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.

Properties.Settings will not be saved

It definitely works. Try this:

public void Test(int value)
{
    Properties.Settings settings = Properties.Settings.Default;

    MessageBox.Show("Last SliderWidth = " + settings.SliderWidth.ToString());

    settings.SliderWidth = value;
    settings.Save();
}

But the saved value won't be reflected in the Designer window you are showing in your screen shot. Those are the initial default values.

Force all user settings to save

The way I managed to solve it was by modifying some existing code I had in a different project to handle version upgrades.

When the program runs:

if (PropertiesSettings.Default.UpgradeRequired)
{
    Properties.Settings.Default.Upgrade();
    Properties.Settings.Default.UpgradeRequired = false;
    Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
    reloadSettings();
}

// Assign settings to themselves and save
// This keeps settings the same as the defaults even when upgrading but ensures all settings appear in the config file
private void reloadSettings()
{
    Properties.Settings.Default.Setting1 = Properties.Settings.Default.Setting1;
    Properties.Settings.Default.Setting2 = Properties.Settings.Default.Setting2;
    //etc
    Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
}

The UpgradeRequired setting should be set to True by default, so a new version with no config will be forced to run the first if statement. The .NET Properties.Settings.Default.Upgrade(); should then take care of finding old config files and loading the old settings.

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