The System.Web.Configuration.ProfileGroupSettingsCollection class contains a collection of System.Web.Configuration.ProfileGroupSettings objects, which each contain a collection of System.Web.Configuration.ProfilePropertySettings objects.

The System.Web.Configuration.ProfilePropertySettings class provides a way to programmatically create, access, and modify the definition of an individual property added to the <properties> subsection of the <profile> section of a configuration file.

The <profile> section of the configuration file specifies a schema for user profiles. At run time, the ASP.NET compilation system uses the information specified in the <profile> section to generate a class called ProfileCommon, which is derived from System.Web.Profile.ProfileBase. The ProfileCommon class definition is based on the properties defined in the <properties> subsection of the <profile> section of the configuration file.

For more information about profile properties, see Understanding ASP.NET Profile Properties. For more information about the profile features added to ASP.NET version 2.0, see ASP.NET Profile Properties Overview.