如何修改App.Config部分值

Question

I have an app.config like below,

<configuration>
    <environment>
        <add key="security" value="1"/> -- I want to change this value to 3
    </environment>
</configuration>

I tried like below to get to environment section,

Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(exePath);
var environment = config.GetSection("environment");

environment variable doesn't give me enough options to get the child elements to modify the value. Could any one please help me out in this one.

Answer 1

Use user scope settings!! NEVER EVER change the application configuration that way. Any value that is changed within the application should be a user setting.

Usually, you access these settings through

Properties.Settings.Default.MyConfigurationValue = ....;
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();

EDIT
Sample for doing what I wrote in the comments. Create two user settings: FirstRun is a bool which is by default set to true . Environment is your value, by default set to 0 .

Then, for example in the Main function in Program.cs you'd do the following:

if (Properties.Settings.Default.FirstRun)
{
    Properties.Settings.Default.FirstRun = false;
    if (myConditionIsTrue)
        Properties.Settings.Default.Environment = 3;
    Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
}

Later in your application it is enough to use Properties.Settings.Default.Environment . That's how the settings mechanism is intended to be used if you want to change configuration values from your application.

Under Windows 2000, XP, 7 and the Windows Server branch you would not even have the rights to modify the app.config in your Program Files folder, so don't!