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Not overwriting saved xml files in C# Window Form

I am fairly new to C# and I was wondering how to keep an XML file from being overwritten if one already exists on the install. In the application, there are two files that contain info to connect to the Database. One of them is relatively dynamic, but the other is saved at the setup. If I do a publish and try to update the application it always overwrites both files. Any thoughts?

You can check if the file exists with File.Exists(Path)
You can look here for more information:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.file.exists?view=netcore-3.1
If this does not work you can try to read that file and if there is any data there just sont delete it.

I assume you are refering to configuration settings.
While designing your settings, in the designer, set scope to "User". This will bind the setting to the users local app settings, and will not be overwritten.
More info here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/winforms/advanced/how-to-create-a-new-setting-at-design-time

How do i find file paths in c# windows application? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Loading image from code using relative path in Windows Forms
(2 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
So, in my program i have a folder called resources, this stores images which i load in the program. Currently i have the path hard-coded in but my friends now want to use the program, is there any way to get the file path to this folder no matter which computer it's on? surely there must be a way.
The current file path is:
H:\Desktop\Solutions\Home\PokeSheet\PokeSheet\Resources
I want it to be able to find the H:\Desktop\Solutions\Home part on its own as that is the part that will change each time

To do this you can use Directory class:
Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
Or:
// As suggested by Martin Bäckström
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
These will return the directory where program is executed. You need only to concat Resources string to obtained path.
Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(); changed if you open a FileDialog. To solve this you need to do this:
yourDialog.RestoreDirectory = true;
Anyway, to use Resources the best way is:
Resource.YourResource;
Where Resource is the name of you resource file/class.

You can find application startup path in StartupPath static variable:
System.Windows.Forms.Application.StartupPath;

Get a file path C#

I have a .txt file that I need to read in my program. For the moment I have the directory hardcoded as such:
file = new StreamReader(#"C:\Users\<username>\Documents\File.txt");
However that will (obviously) not work on any other PC that does not have that access to altering the code, or (by some strange happenstance) the same directory as the original code.
How can I get the full file path to set it in my program using C#?

You could create the file in their Application Data directory (they could still find it if they wanted to, but at least it wouldn't be as obvious as the My Documents folder).
When you want to access it, use the Environment class. There are methods for locating special folders for the current user, without resorting to hard-coded paths:
var filePath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(
Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), "File.txt");

Option 1:
Application.StartupPath can be used for the purpose.
It gets the path for the executable file that started the application, not including the executable name.
Keep File.txt with your executable.
Option 2:
Use Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData
It gives directory that serves as a common repository for application-specific data for the current roaming user.
NOTE: If you want to restrict the user to look into the contents of File.txt then you might need to encrypt the contents.

Reading string from resource file and editing it programmatically

How can I read string resource file? I have tried this already but I couldn't get the value. For editing it later I couldn't do anything. How can I edit it later programmaticaly? I want to edit its value with a string that I get from textbox.
Assembly assembly = this.GetType().Assembly;
manager = new ResourceManager("StringResources.Strings", assembly);
value = manager.GetString("Name");
For changing its value I tried to do this but it gives me an error does not contain a definition for Current. I try these in windows form.
Application.Current.Resources["Name"] = "abcd";
Please give me an advice
Thanks in advance

You cannot edit a resource string. If you want to store some string that you can alter programatically you should use a configuration file, or, even better user or app settings (that are actually a wrapper around the configuration file).
The reason that you can't change a resource string at runtime, is because the resource is compiled into your executable. If you reverse engineer the compiled *.exe or *.dll file, you can actually see your string in the code. Editing an already compiled executable file is never a good idea (unless you're trying to hack it), but when you try to do it from the executables code, it just plain impossible, as the file is locked during execution.
You can read more about user settings on MSDN.
You should check out the link, as it contains detailed instructions with screenshots as to how to set your settings through GUI.
In brief, you right click your project->Properties->Settings. Now, you'll see a table where you can add, edit and remove user settings. Once you create a user setting you can use it like this:
//Read
String settingValue = Settings.Default.TestSetting;
//Write
Settings.Default.TestSetting = "newVal";
//Write settings to disk
Settings.Default.Save();

Quick Question: How can I make sure the current directory is not changed because of OpenFileDialog?

say my application is installed in C:\programfiles\xyz\ I've some setting & other data files (*.dat files) in this directory too.
My application uses OpenFileDialog to open an image. Problem is that when ever user browses to some directory (say MyPictures) for an image. The current working directory of the application becomes that directory (MyPictures in this case).
After user inputs the image. I do some processing over it and save some values to imagedata.dat which will be located in the path where original application is installed.(C:\programfiles\xyz here )
In my code I'm just using FileStream("imagedata.dat",...,...) without any path prefix before the filename. Problem here is that application is crashing because it is searching for imagedata.dat in 'MyPictures\imagedata.dat'.
How can I avoid this?

You should be using absolute path names when saving data to files. The current working directory is controlled by the user, not by you (for example, if they launch your process from a shortcut then the working directory could've been changed before your process even starts up).
Also, you should never save anything under C:\Program Files during normal use. Doing this means your program needs to be running as an administrator, and unless you're doing administrator-y things then you should be able to run it as a regular user.
The correct thing to do in your case is to use the Environment.GetFolderPath() function to get the location of the ApplicationData folder and save your data under there. Just choose a sub-directory based on your application's name.

You could save it to GetCurrentDirectory then restore with SetCurrentDirectory. However, I agree wih codeka that using the appropriate GetFolderPath (probably ApplicationData, CommonApplicationData or LocalApplicationData) is a better solution.