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Read/Write Application Settings in C#.NET project

I need to save informations (db password) permanently in my project via an .aspx file. I found the Application Settings to store the password but other users can not access my values.
For example:
Setting db_password has the value oldPassword
Administrator (User A) changes the database password to newPassword. It is stored into the Applicatoin settings via: Properties.Settings.Default["db_password"] = tb_testSettingPassword.Text;
Saving: Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
Administrator (User A) see the changed value: lt_testSettingPassword.Text = System.Convert.ToString(Properties.Settings.Default["db_password"]);
User B (no administrator) accesses the page and want to get informations from the database. He needs to connect via the password that user A has saved but I still gets the value oldPassword.
How can I store the value for all users?

Settings stored with Properties.Settings.Default are stored in the current users own application data folder (%USERPROFILE%\AppData under Vista and above).
If you want to have a config file easily accessible to all users you should store it at System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData).
That line will give you the path to the common AppData folder (C:\ProgramDAta under Win7), where all users will have read and write access.
In there you should create a folder for your application and then create your config file in that folder.
If you need help creating folders and files there are multiple questions and answers on SO that should help you out.

Not able to persist new changes in appsetting section in app.config WPF?

Below is the code i am using to update or change the values in appsetting in app.config
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
config.AppSettings.Settings["userName"].Value = username;
config.AppSettings.Settings["pwd"].Value = pwd;
config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified, true);
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings");
i am using above code to change or update the settings in appsetting section at runtime and want the changes to persist so that when i run the application it should pick the new values from appsettings but here it doesn't happen so the changes made and saved at run time do not persist when i relaunch my application again it has the old default settings. Also i checked app.config in bin/debug but it too had the old values in appsettings. i refered various blogs and post here too as a reference but it got the same code as above but it did not persist the settings.have referred this post

I had the same problem while ago. I would have preferred to put this in a comment but I don't have that privilege. My answer might not be your case but I think is worth to be shared.
May I ask you where your bin folder is located? Windows 7 when you programmatically alter a file that isn't in a user accessible space creates a copy of that file in a Roaming space and there the file will stay. Every time you try to access the file (like your app.config) W7 transparently redirect your readings/writings to this file, so there's a chance that you are modifying the file in the roaming space, leaving the one you are lookin unaltered.
Are the changes you are making still there the successive time you start the application?
Disclaimer/Apology: I'm not an experienced user so if I am saying silly things let me know and I will remove this comment.

See below(from MSDN) and remember app.config is in your project. .exe.config is the actual file name.
Client applications use a global configuration that applies to all users, separate configurations that apply to individual users, and configurations that apply to roaming users. The userLevel parameter determines the location of the configuration file being opened by indicating whether it has no user level (the configuration file is in the same directory as the application) or has a per-user level (the configuration file is in an application settings path determined by the user level).
Specify which configuration to get by passing one of the following values for userLevel:
To get the Configuration object that applies to all users, set userLevel to None.
To get the local Configuration object that applies to the current user, set userLevel to PerUserRoamingAndLocal.
To get the roaming Configuration object that applies to the current user, set userLevel to PerUserRoaming.
NoteNote
To get the Configuration object for a resource, your code must have read permissions on all the configuration files from which it inherits settings. To update a configuration file, your code must additionally have write permissions for both the configuration file and the directory in which it exists.

i got my solution of above problem, my goal was to persist changes done at run time at application or user level. Initially i tried using App.config where i kept default settings for application in appsettings section of app.config, but later after research i got to refer i got to know appsetting does not persist the changes, instead you can use userSettings section where under YourApplication.Property.Settings you can give your userlevel settings and it worked for me. To do this you do not need to go to App.config to do it manually, rather you can do it from the property window of project.
Right Click on your project -> Select Settings Tab on the left-> Now on the right hand side you will see the Resource section , give the ResourceName, Type, Scope and its value and you are done. The same value can be access and change dynamically from Code as well.
Below are Code Excerpt for the same --
Accessing Settings Value
enter code here
userName = Properties.Settings.Default.UserName;
pwd = Properties.Settings.Default.PWD;
Saving New Settings Back
enter code here
Properties.Settings.Default.UserName = userName.ToString();
Properties.Settings.Default.PWD = newPWD..ToString();
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
And when you will launch your application next time you will get the new changed settings as your default settings.
I hope that helps
Thanks Guys
VJ

Saving setting to a exe

I have a program which I want to store information in a string. I have been using the Properties.Setting.Default.STRINGname to store the information, which works fine on my PC, and I can see the saved strings (when I go to the settings in the application). But when I take the application to a new PC it losses the strings. Is there a way to be able to edit this information and save it in the app? So basically I need to be able to convert the user setting to application setting, but after the runtime.
var settings = Properties.Settings.Default;
settings.H1 = textbox1.text;
settings.H2 = textbox2.text;
settings.Save();

MSDN explicit says something about this:
Settings that are application-scoped are read-only, and can only be changed at design time or by altering the .config file in between application sessions. Settings that are user-scoped, however, can be written at run time just as you would change any property value. The new value persists for the duration of the application session. You can persist the changes to the settings between application sessions by calling the Save method.
For this, Application setting will never work for you. However, if you are using a User scoped settings it does work, but soon you change the application from one computer to another (as you say you want to) you will loose the settings as that's another machine (another user-scope)...
There are way to continue to have the same settings, you can do, at least 2 things:
use a .config file to save the settings (it's an XML file)
use a service to host the settings and you can read if user has internet access
What you can't do is
using only one executable file, save the settings from computer to computer.

User settings are compiled differently than Application settings, and thus cannot be converted after compilation. Why not compile with Application Settings?

The code you are using should save the user settings. Rememeber that user settings will be saved in the user's data folder. Not in the configuration file where the app was installed (say program files). This is the usual path:
<Profile Directory>\<Company Name>\<App Name>_<Evidence Type>_<Evidence Hash>\<Version>\user.config
See this links form more information

Error opening connection to SQL CE file on test machine

I'm testing my application on a non-administrator windows 7 account. The application is installed into program files. This includes the .sdf file I need to read from. I've got the connection string marked as read only and set the temp path to my documents. This is the error that it spits out when I try to do connection.Open()
Internal error: Cannot open the shared
memory region
I've got the connection string defined in app.config, but I'm modifying it before I start using the connection. This part is in app.config Data Source=|DataDirectory|\DB.sdf;Password=password;
And then I modify it like so:
connection = new SqlCeConnection(connectionString +
";Mode=Read Only; Temp Path=" + Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments));
This works on my developer machine (obviously) since its running from outside of a read-only directory. But even when I manually mark the .sdf file as read-only it still works, and successfully creates the temporary db file in the correct folder. However, on the test machine everything is located in a read-only program files folder, and it doesn't work.
The main goal of this problem is trying to make sure my program doesn't have to be ran as an administrator, and I would like to keep from moving the main copy of the db file from outside of the installation directory.
Let me know if I need to explain anything else. Thanks

I'm using a sql ce database too and had the same problems. my solution was to create the database in a subfolder in Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData. If only one user will use it you can create it in Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData. But here you don't need admin rights.
Another point is your connection string in your app.config. If you'll modify it in your program like me, it must be located in such a 'non-admin-right-needed' folder too. I have a static app.config in my app-folder in program files, but a second one with the connection string in Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData (this is 'username\AppData\Local' in Win7). And I protect my connectionstring with DataProtectionConfigurationProvider encryption, so no one can read the data base password.
This is how you can map your second app.config to your app:
string ConfigPathString = #"{0}\MyApp\MyApp.config";
string ConfigPath = String.Format( ConfigPathString, System.Environment.GetFolderPath( Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData ) );
ExeConfigurationFileMap fileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
fileMap.ExeConfigFilename = ConfigPath;
Configuration Config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration( fileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None );
string myConnectionString = ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings["MyConnectionStringKey"].ConnectionString;

Like Calgary already mentioned in his comments you can't really open the file directly in the programs folder due to the restrictions of Windows 7 to non-admins. But due to the fact that you don't want to write anything into it, why don't you simply copy at startup the file into Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData?
When your program starts up simply copy the file out of the programs folder into a proper location, use it as you like and delete it on application exit. So you don't leave any fragments (except the application would crash).
Just to be sure for the last scenario, you could add an additional delete operation to the setup deinstallation routine. So if the application will be removed and it crashed at the last start the setup will remove the trash, leaving the machine as before the installation of the software.

Why are application settings read-only in app.config?

I have some settings in my app.config which I intend to be 'global' - ie. any user can change them, and all users get the same setting.
But unless I change them to be user settings, they are read only.
Why is this?
And how should I go about persisting my app's global settings?
Edit:
This is actually a windows service application which runs as a service as LocalSystem. It can also be run manually by a local admin with argument "/config", which launches a windows form to edit configuration values.
So it will have write access to %PROGRAMFILES% in both situations.
The way I am accessing my settings is thusly:
Settings.Default.MySetting = MyNewValue;
And when MySetting is set to Application (in my project properties, Settings.settings), I get a compile-time error "MySetting is read only".
I am new to this stuff, and have not yet found a very good explanation of how it is supposed to be done. For example, why do I need to say 'Default', and what does that actually mean? I have no idea. If anyone can point me to an app.config usage tutorial, that would be really helpful.

The real complete answer:
The app.config settings are read-only because there are 2 types of settings:
Application Settings
User Settings
The first won't change unless the application publisher publishes a new version of it. The second is not stored in the app.config, but in a user.config file. In the abscence of this user.config file the app.config provides the default value.
If MySetting is a User Setting:
Settings.Default.MySetting = MyNewValue;
Settings.Default.Save();
It will create a user.config file at [User Local Settings Application Data]\[company name]\[application].exe[hash string]\[version] with the new settings, and those settings will prevail over the settings in the app.config file.

Why: Application settings are intended to be stored in the Application folder under Program Files where the user does not have write privileges.
How: There is no default support for "All Users" but you should be able to setup your own custom config file in a public folder or use a Database.

Simply put: There's no location on a machine that everyone can change, unless you give privileges to do so.
There are several ways to deal with this kind of situation:
You can create a configuration file / some registry settings, put this in the "all users" profile and grant "Everyone" the rights to change that specific file. During installation you can automate the procedure for granting the appropiate privileges and your program can handle the rest.
You can leverage UAC to make sure the current user has the appropiate privileges to change a system-wide setting. This is the recommended approach but also means that not everyone can change specific settings.
You can use a shared database and store your settings in there.
???
I would not recommend to change items in the program files directory or changing the default privileges overthere.
EDIT: As local system you have indeed write privileges to the program files directory. If you get the "Read only" error, it means the settings itself are read only. You'll need to use the configuration manager to be able to change the settings in configuration files.
Hope this helps.

One reason is that the app.config file is in your app's folder under the Program Files directory, and everything in Program Files is read only for standard users by default.
Another is that app.config settings apply system wide. If one user makes a change it will impact other users. Normal users are not supposed to be able to make that kind of change. Anything that can impact multiple users should only be set by a system administrator. Per-user settings belong in each user's Application Data folder.

Not quite sure what you mean here.
Do you mean you allowed users to alter app.config from the UI and the changes are not persisted?
did you call
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings");
and
Configuration.Save();

Configuration Settings are cached in the memory when you starts the application. you can deal with the app.config file as xml to change the values.

I'm using this code (a static method) to change the default settings:
public static bool SetGlobalSetting(string settingName, string settingValue)
{
try
{
XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
xml.Load(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile);
XmlNode xmlNode = xml.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("descendant::setting[#name='" + settingName + "']");
xmlNode.SelectSingleNode("value").InnerText = settingValue;
xml.Save(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile);
Settings s = new Settings();
s.Reload();
return true;
} catch (Exception e)
{
// process the exception as you need
}
return false;
}
}