Saving user preferences

Hello all,

I have an application which needs to store the user preferences and configuration settings somewhere on the disk so that it could load them when the application starts up. I am supposed to use SQL server authentication which means more than one person can launch the application from the same windows login account. This means that I cant use IsolatedStorage, isnt it I thought of creating xml files for each user but I dont know where to store them on the disk !! Any pointers on this would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

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Saving user preferences

Mark A. Richman
Hello,

Have you thought of putting it in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_USER This is what we use for our individual user settings for our applications. It is a lot cleaner than using the disk because you don't have to know who is logged in to figure out where your settings are.

Ken
mae ann
Thanks Rich,

I didn't even know this existed. I like this much better.
johndoecal
Or if you are in the .NET 2/VS2005 world, you could use visual studio's built-in support for application and user settings.

For windows forms projects (not sure about other types) there is a Settings.settings file under the Properties folder in the solution view. Place your properties in there, and access them using

Settings.Default.MyPropertyName

and Save the (user) settings with Settings.Default.Save()
Learning VB
Just a little more info in case you are not familiar with the Registry.

You should put your app settings that are specific to a user under the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER but it should be in its own key under the Software key. Something like HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\{YourAppName}\Settings or something like that.

If you have settings you want to store that would apply to anyone running the app, put the settings under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software ....
Saving user preferences

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