How to share settings between different versions of the same software

Question

I am deriving from ApplicationSettingsBase to store our users settings, however when the build number gets incremented the app uses a new settings folder, and so the old settings are lost. What is an appropriate way to deal with the situation of shared settings over different build numbers.

Answer 1

Have a User setting called Upgraded, boolean that defaults to false. Then do a check:

  if (!Properties.Settings.Default.Upgraded)
  {
    Properties.Settings.Default.Upgrade();
    Properties.Settings.Default.Upgraded = true;
    Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
    Trace.WriteLine("INFO: Settings upgraded from previous version");
  }

This will upgrade the settings from the previous version if it's the first run of the new version.