The application settings architecture enables you to provide a custom storage mechanism for application settings by creating a custom settings provider, which is a class derived from System.Configuration.SettingsProvider. Such a class contains the basic functionality for storing and retrieving properties. However, you can add additional standardized functionality by implementing the System.Configuration.IApplicationSettingsProvider interface in the custom settings provider. This interface contains three methods that primarily enable the settings provider to more intelligently handle application version changes. Typically, the settings provider will store application settings for different versions of an application separately to anticipate the following circumstances:

• Side-by-side execution of different versions of an application.

• Retaining application settings when upgrading an application.

• Resetting the application settings to their default values for the currently used version.

The System.Configuration.LocalFileSettingsProvider class implements the System.Configuration.IApplicationSettingsProvider interface. The same set of methods contained by System.Configuration.IApplicationSettingsProvider is also found in the System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsBase class, enabling the establishment of a predefined communication channel between an application settings wrapper and its settings provider.

Namespace: System.Configuration
Assembly: System (in System.dll)
Assembly Versions: 2.0.0.0, 4.0.0.0
Since: .NET 2.0