Using Visual Studio 2013 - there is nothing I could do to make it work reliably, I would call Save and it did not save.
Save and then immediately Reload and it still would not retain the values on subsequent runs (probably related to when I stopped debugging could not identify the root cause) - very frustrating, likely there is an underlying bug but I cannot prove it.
To avoid getting crazy with this I decided to use the registry - the most fundamental way to keep app settings for an app.
Recommended for you all. Here is the code:
public static class RegistrySettings
{
private static RegistryKey baseRegistryKey = Registry.CurrentUser;
private static string _SubKey = string.Empty;
public static string SubRoot
{
set
{ _SubKey = value; }
}
public static string Read(string KeyName, string DefaultValue)
{
// Opening the registry key
RegistryKey rk = baseRegistryKey;
// Open a subKey as read-only
RegistryKey sk1 = rk.OpenSubKey(_SubKey);
// If the RegistrySubKey doesn't exist return default value
if (sk1 == null)
{
return DefaultValue;
}
else
{
try
{
// If the RegistryKey exists I get its value
// or null is returned.
return (string)sk1.GetValue(KeyName);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
ShowErrorMessage(e, String.Format("Reading registry {0}", KeyName.ToUpper()));
return null;
}
}
}
public static bool Write(string KeyName, object Value)
{
try
{
// Setting
RegistryKey rk = baseRegistryKey;
// I have to use CreateSubKey
// (create or open it if already exits),
// 'cause OpenSubKey open a subKey as read-only
RegistryKey sk1 = rk.CreateSubKey(_SubKey);
// Save the value
sk1.SetValue(KeyName, Value);
return true;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
ShowErrorMessage(e, String.Format("Writing registry {0}", KeyName.ToUpper()));
return false;
}
}
private static void ShowErrorMessage(Exception e, string Title)
{
if (ShowError == true)
MessageBox.Show(e.Message,
Title
, MessageBoxButtons.OK
, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
}
}
Usage:
private void LoadDefaults()
{
RegistrySettings.SubRoot = "Software\\Company\\App";
textBoxInputFile.Text = RegistrySettings.Read("InputFileName");
}
private void SaveDefaults()
{
RegistrySettings.SubRoot = "Software\\Company\\App";
RegistrySettings.Write("InputFileName", textBoxInputFile.Text);
}
