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Asked: 2026-05-18T03:55:24+00:00

I have a desktop application that on first execution prompts for the connection details

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I have a desktop application that on first execution prompts for the connection details to the database and then I want to retain them for future use (as an encrypted string) so that the next time the user starts up the app they can be re-used. Now the client runs a citrix environment which I haven’t really had any exposure to before and I want to make sure that this encrypted database string is saved in such a way that it is available to the user wherever they log in from – I think that what I’m saying is that the application needs to be aware of this setting in their roaming profile but this is something I haven’t really had to worry about before so I’m just checking whether there are any gotchas that I need to be aware of.

Normally I just use the My.Settings namespace in .Net but is that going to cut it in this environment?

I’d appreciate anyone who knows a “best practice” for saving user settings in such a way that a roaming user will not be challenged to enter their settings again when they log in from a new location.

The reason for setting the DB connection in this way is that there is a Test and a Live database that the user can switch between (identical databases, different servers).

Would it be better to store the live and test connection strings in the app.config and allow the admins to manually update them after installation and then provide a switch to go from test to live in the UI?

I generally work on asp.net sites where everything lives happily in the web.config so this is a bit of a step outside my comfort zone. I can see quite a few options in the books but I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on which technique works best for them?

I’m using VB.Net 3.5 (Visual Studio 2010). It’s a windows forms project with a handful of .dll libraries in the solution where the actual DB accessing takes place.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    As you already wrote, you need to make sure your saved settings end up in the roaming part of the profile. That can either be the registry hive HKEY_CURRENT_USER or the folder %APPDATA% which resolves to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming (on Vista and newer, but also to the locale-specific roaming AppData folder on older operating systems).

    In .NET, user-specific settings can be stored both in the roaming and local parts of the user profile. In order for settings to roam, the “Roaming” property needs to be set to true. See this article for an explanation and also for the paths the settings actually get saved at:

    http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/appsettings2005.aspx

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