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Permanently add a database to an application C#

I'm trying to create software that will add a computer to an Active Directory domain. One criteria I need to meet is the machine must be added to the proper OU. In order to do this I have a set list of site locations with addresses (this is how we determine OU). This list is currently in the form of an ACCDB file, and I want to include this within the application as the Access list will not be changed.
Everything I see wants the DB file to be connected to in a different location such as server or on the local machine. My preference is to use the DB file as a reference or something inside the program's .exe file itself. I may be missing something horribly obvious, but it's been messing with me for a couple days so I'm reaching out for help.
To clarify, this software MUST be self contained (no installer). It must also be able to determine the proper OU to join to the domain (no access to shares until the PC joins the domain). It must also be user-friendly enough to avoid mistakes, meaning I want to avoid copying distributing multiple files that must go to a correct location. This is why I want to embed the ACCDB file into the application for on the fly use.

Things get much easier because this is static data. You don't have to worry about persisting this data, reclaiming changes into your program, or users accidentally deleting something, etc. You will be able to just use an embedded resource in your application. In the link, follow the examples using the image file. Text file examples will corrupt your database.
However, there is still a trick to doing this. The problem is the Access engine included with Windows will not be able to open the database as a resource, and so you will need to save this file to the local hard drive. The good news is its not as bad as it seems, because your program can do this as needed, and make sure it's right, rather than asking the user to put a file in a specific place.
As for where to put the file when you extract it... the safest and best place is the Application Data folder. You can easily get the path for this folder by checking the results of this call:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
This will give you a path where standard privilege users do have write access, no matter which user.
In summary:
Embed the ACCDB as a resource.
When your program runs, get the Application Data path using the Environment object.
Open a FileStream for writing to a file based on the path from #2
Open the embedded resource as a Stream object in C#
Copy the stream from #4 to the stream from #3. Make sure to use a mechanism intended for binary data, rather than text.
Close/Dispose your streams, so no locks remain on the file. This is as simple as putting using blocks in the right places.
Open a normal Access connection to the file you just made, using any of the thousands of tutorials or examples available on the web as a guide.
In this way, you only need to distribute the final .exe file, and users won't need any special permissions to use the database. You don't have to worry if a user deletes your file; it's still embedded in the application, which will recreate it if needed every time it starts up.
The downside is a clever user may be able to manipulate the database to end up in an undesirable OU. If you need to worry about this, you should consider having the program check a web service, rather than using embedded data. Anything you embed can ultimately be altered by an end user. A web service is also nice because you can update your mapping data as your organization evolves, without needing to rebuild or redistribute the program.

box with files, which cannot be seen from Windows

Good day, is there any option how to create a box, which cannot be seen from Windows? I would like to insert some files into this box. These files should be accessible only through my application, not from Windows. Thank you in advance.

How many files and how do you need to access them? If they are only for reading and you don't have too many, you always have the option to store them as a resource in your project. Have a look at this link on MSDN on how to store various file types directly inside your assembly.
NOTE: If you are planning on storing passwords or security-sensitive data, you shouldn't use this approach.
Another alternative would be to store you files inside a database. If you were to use something such as SQLite (here is the .Net data provider), Windows would have access to the database file, but not to the files contained within the database (which could be encrypted). Depending on your data, you'd have to store the file information as a binary large object (blob). See here for an example of how to do this.

It depends on the layer of abstraction you want. All files created by an application are at some level accessible by windows, however, you can mask the content of these files (i.e. encrypt them).
Generally speaking, you could still store the files in a folder, and apply encryption. Here's the msdn article on the point. The other issue is where do you store the key used for encryption.
A simple solution is to hard-code the key in some variable. However, if the assembly is decompiled, the key will become apparent. On the other hand, if you want the user that created the files to begin with, to be the only one to access the files, then you can use the Data Protection API.

If your question is how to the hide the box then you can set the "Visible" attribute to false no matter what control you are using for this "box".

if your box does not include a lot of files or not large file, you can try save it in a compress file like .zip and add a password for it. also add the hidden attribute on that box.

Saving and reading from specific parts of a .txt file

Aspiring programmer here!
You can skip this part if you find it irrelevant.
Im currently working on a project where i give every program a username and i let people edit their own part of of each file. This will work more or less like onenote (great program), but i want to be able to restrict access to certian parts of it. I also need the file to be stored locally (on a shared location that is). In time i also want the files to be encrypted, but ill stick with the editing part of my question for now.
So my real problem:
I need people to be able to edit their part of a .txt file. The setup will probably look like this:
Document name:
Task 1: (Task name, like "Write a paragraph about Einstein"
User 1: (User 1s answer)
User 2: (User 2s answer and etc.)
Then ill follow up with more tasks / users. What i need to make my program understand is to read-only document name and other users answer, and read-write on their own part of the file.
What code can i use to accomplish this?

You won't be able to do that in a text file. You'll have to spend a little bit more effort in solving that task. Use a database and manage those tasks in a table and the user responses in another table. That will shurely work much better, trust me.

If you really want to use a text based solution for this instead of a database I would look into XML files.
They give you the ability to structure a document and have capabilities of being queried by C# trough XPath or Linq to XML queries.
This documentation should get you started.

Yea a database (use an MSAccess MDB file if you don't have a SQL server) would be best for this.
However, if you really want to use a text file, what you do is
1. Use System.IO to read the file and parse the file to get the piece of data you want them to edit (only read it out of the file, don't modify the file at this point).
2. Display the piece of data to them in a textbox or whatever.
3. After they've mdofied it, then read in the whole file into a variable
4. replace the old piece of data with the new data. in the variable.
5. output the entire variable back into the file and save and close it.
If this is REALLY what you want to do, i can post some code for you.

rolling out and reading base data in an WP7 app

I'm creating an WP7 app that shows an inspirational text for every day and allows you to mark some of this texts as favorites. You can see the text for today, jump to an day in the calendar oder browse your favorites.
All texts are known prior roll out / installation, I don't want to lazy load them via cloud/web, I want to "install" them together with the app.
How should I store them? Should I use one of the open source databases for WP7 and create all rows on installation? Should I just hardcode them and save the favorites in an IsolatedStorage file?
EDIT: Is it possible to have the read only data in a XML file in the Visual Studio Project and mark it as a ressource? Will this later roll out the file automatically? Does this make sense?

If your concern is speed of loading / efficiency of reading the files then you'll have to test to see what works best. I'd start with what's simplest to implement and then change if necessary.
What is right for your app will depend on the total size of data and the size of individual pieces of text. As well as considering where you store the data, be sure to also consider the format you store it in as deserialization/parsing is also an overhaed you should consider.
Remember to test this on an actual device as the performance you see on the emulator is not likely to be realistic of what your users will see.
Update
If it's readonly data you probably want to add it as multiple content files (set the build Action) within the XAP.
The format of the files and how you divide the data between them will depend on the data and the app.
Having multiple files means you don't have to load all the data at once. (I assume you don't need to do that.) Just open the file you need.
Update 2
For an example of loading a resource file from the XAP see: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/silverlight_sdk/archive/2010/08/27/loading-a-static-xml-file-to-your-windows-phone-silverlight-app.aspx

how to store data in c# application in a portable form?

I'm writing an application using windows form and c# 3.0. I was wondering if there is a recommended way of persist data across time. However, i do not want to touch the machine it is running on, as a result, i would like to store the data in the binary executable (preferably, due to the need not clutter up the user's folder with random config files).
So if anyone have any ideas of how to do this, it would be much appreciated!
Jason

If you're looking to store configuration information - app.config or a settings file is probably the way to go.
If you are storing user data - you should really allow the user to control where it is saved - and prefer the \User\Username folder on the machine.
As for what format to store it in ... you can certainly use something like SQLLite - but there's nothing wrong with XML either, if you're not storing true binary data. .NET offers a number of APIs to transform object graphs into XML representations - which you may want to look into.
If you don't want to store anything on the local user's machine, you probably want a network database - or a webservice - to which you upload the users data. Just make sure your users understand this - many don't like their private data being sent somewhere on the web without their consent.
You really don't want to go about modifying the executable file. Many virus scanners quarantine executables that are constantly changing in content or size - as a way to proactively prevent viruses and malware from infecting the machine. You don't want to go there.

Do not modify the executable. Adding a single SQLite database is a much better solution.

Isolated storage is another alternative.
Doesn't clutter install directory
Doesn't cause issues with AnitVirus software
Part of the OS including .Net objects, don't need to install anything else
Already works with the Windows security model
Exists on a per user basis, so saved settings are separated for each user
Can serialize/deserialize obects directly into it

SQLite is what your looking for and is compatible with c#

If you dont want to store data in a SQLite db on the end users PC you could call out to a web service on another server which stores it's data in SQL Server or something else.

I don't believe a windows form project can modify itself like that (I've tried to find a way to do this myself some time ago). Some form of hosted application such as a silverlight application (where the application is essentially a zip file) may be the way to go. Silverlight applications would require the silverlight plugin though (and I'm still not sure if a silverlight application is allowed to modify itself).
I would think that one config file of some sort would be prefereable, and not leave much clutter.
One way to ensure that your applicaiton is entirely self contained would be to use a program like ThinStall after you have compiled the project. This virtualises the application and could give it it's own file system or registry internally to the .exe file.
One way for an executable to change itself would be to put another executable inside it, (embed as a resource then extract it to a file when needed). This executable could then modify the first, however I don't think ther'es any framework for it to do that, so it would require knowing excatly what to change and where.