Working with Windows Forms Configuration Files in .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005
The newest version of the .NET framework extends strong data typing to configuration files, adds scope for settings, a GUI-based property editor, and drops the read-only restriction for configuration classes.
by Guy Rish
April 22, 2005
mong the many new features in the forthcoming .NET 2.0 are the revamped System.Configuration namespace and the Visual Studio 2005 configuration editor. The new classes raise configuration for both desktop and Web applications to a new level of sophistication compared to prior implementations. The sheer size of the changes could fill a small reference text, so this article focuses on a very simple desktop application whose only purpose is to display and modify content from its own configuration file. To run the sample application you need to download the Visual Studio 2005 public beta. I used the February 2005 Professional Edition for all the screenshots and code builds.
Some New Features
Two of the most important new configuration file features are strong data typing for type safety and a separate and editable scope for user settings.
Type Safety
The previous version of the .NET Framework only allowed for string settings. This could create problems when reading settings directly into non-string variables, as seen in the code fragment below:
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mong the many new features in the forthcoming .NET 2.0 are the revamped System.Configuration namespace and the Visual Studio 2005 configuration editor. The new classes raise configuration for both desktop and Web applications to a new level of sophistication compared to prior implementations. The sheer size of the changes could fill a small reference text, so this article focuses on a very simple desktop application whose only purpose is to display and modify content from its own configuration file. To run the sample application you need to download the 
