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• Client Settings (18)
• Exceptions (1)
• Getting Started (6)
• Keyboard Handling (3)
• Mouse Handling (6)
• Printing (2)
• Resources (1)

• How do I use a Web service client to retrieve application settings?

  For information on using the a Web service for settings, see the following SDK sample: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180994.aspx

• How do I persist application settings in the registry?

  For information on using the registry for settings, see the following SDK sample: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181001.aspx

• How do I use IPersistComponentSettings?

  For information on when and how to use IPersistComponentSettings, see the whitepaper on MSDN on IPersistComponentSettings.

• Why are user scoped settings present in the app.config?

  The configuration system is hierarchical and has the following ordering: Machine > Application > Roaming User > Local User When you query a configuration section at any level, you get a merged view of the sections declared in that level and those...

• How do I get the <I>&lt;insert type here&gt;</I> class to serialize correctly?

  While most common types can be serialized in one of two ways listed above, there are some types that may not. In such cases, you have a few different options: Implement a TypeConverter for the type that can convert to and from string. The implementation...

• How are my strongly typed properties serialized as settings?

  There are two primary mechanisms that ApplicationSettingsBase uses to serialize settings: If a TypeConverter exists that can convert to and from string, it is used. Otherwise, the XmlSerializer is used.

• Are there multiple config files for an application or just one?

  The default SettingsProvider for client applications (called the LocalFileSettingsProvider ) stores settings in the application configuration files. In .NET v1 and v1.1, there were two levels of config files - machine.config and app.exe.config (where...

• How do I know when to call Upgrade in a non-Clickonce app?

  In non-Clickonce cases, there is no automatic upgrade - you have to call Upgrade yourself. Here is one idea for determining when to call Upgrade: Have a boolean setting called CallUpgrade with a default value of true. When your app starts up, do the following...

• How do I know when to call Upgrade in a Clickonce app?

  In Clickonce, when you install a new version of your application, ApplicationSettingsBase will detect it and automatically upgrade settings for you at the point settings are loaded.

• If I deploy a new version of my application, will the user lose all the settings saved by the previous version?

  It is easy to upgrade settings from a previous version of the application to the latest. Simply call ApplicationSettingsBase.Upgrade() and it will retrieve settings from the previous version that match the current version of the class and store them out...

• Where is the user.config file located if I deployed my application using Clickonce?

  The path algorithm mentioned above is not used in the Clickonce case. Instead, the local user.config file goes in the Clickonce Data directory (the <Version> part of the path will still be included). There is no roaming user.config file for Clickonce...

• Is there any way to change or customize the path of the user.config file?

  The LocalFileSettingsProvider does not provide a way to change the files in which settings are stored. Note : The provider itself doesn't determine the config file locations in the first place - it is the configuration system. If you need to store...

• How can I get the user.config file path programmatically in a non-Clickonce app?

  If you want to get to the path programmatically, you can do it using the Configuration Management API. For example, here is how you can get the local user.config file path: Note: You need to add a reference to System.Configuration.dll Configuration config...

• Why is there a version number in the user.config path?

  There are a couple of reasons why the user.config path is version sensitive: To support side-by-side deployment of different versions of an application (you can do this with Clickonce, for example). It is possible for different versions of the application...

• Why is the user.config path so obscure?

  The path construction algorithm has to meet certain rigorous requirements in terms of security, isolation and robustness. While we tried to make the path as easily discoverable as possible by making use of friendly, application supplied strings, it is...

• Where is the user.config file located in a non-Clickonce app?

  The path of the user.config files is structured as follows: <Profile Directory> \ <Company Name> \ <App Name> _ <Evidence Type> _ <Evidence Hash> \ <Version> \ user.config Where: <Profile Directory> - is either...

• Why can't I change application scoped settings at runtime?

  Application scoped settings are essentially read only from the application's point of view, and aren't meant to be changed by users, but rather only the administrator. An additional reason for this has to do with how the default SettingsProvider...

• What is the difference between application scoped and user scoped settings?

  There are generally two main types of settings that applications want to store: Static data like connection strings and web references that don't change often, but should still be possible for an admin to change. User preferences and customization...

• How do I get the mouse cursor position in my control's client coordinates?

  Use the Position property of the Cursor class found in the System.Windows.Forms namespace. Here is code that will flag whether the mouse is over button1. Point point = PointToClient( Cursor.Position ); bool mouseIsOverButton1 = button1.Bounds.Contains...

• How do I receive notification of the mouse being over a control?

  Add a handler for the control's MouseMove event. This will be hit as the mouse moves over the control's Bounds rectangle. Contributed from George Shepherd's Windows Forms FAQ

• How do I set the mouse cursor position?

  The Cursor.Position property is a static property with both get and set methods available. Remember that the Point object used by the property is in screen coordinates. Here is code that move the mouse position down 20 points. Point point = Cursor.Position;...

• How do I allow the user to drag a window if it doesn't have a title bar or border?

  You can drag such a window by using Win32 APIs to switch the mouse hit to WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN. The code below will allow you to drag by mousing down anywhere in the form's clientarea as long as you don't hit a child control on the form. using System...

• How do I determine if a mouse button is pressed and moving over a form?

  Catch the form's MouseMove event which is called when the mouse moves over the form. To determine if a button is pressed during the move, check the event arg's Button property. The code below draw's a line on the form as the mouse moves over...

• Why do I not receive MouseLeave messages in a Control in a Form?

  This usually happens when a Control doesn't know that the mouse has left its bounds following a mouse enter. This results in the Control not throwing a MouseLeave event for subsequent mouse moves over it. This is possible if you performed some operation...

• What are some good books on Windows Forms programming and related topics?

  Windows Forms Programming in C# Chris Sells, 2004, Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0321116208. Windows Forms Programming in Visual Basic .NET Chris Sells and Justin Ghetland, 2004, Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0321125193. An excellent book for learning Windows Forms for...

• How do I process certain keys at the Form level, irrespective of which control has the focus?

  When the Form.KeyPreview property is set to true, the Form's KeyPress, KeyDown and KeyUp events will be fired even before the Control with the focus' corresponding events. You may choose to forward these message to the Control after processing...

• How do I process keyboard messages on an application-wide basis?

  You can implement the IMessageFilter interface in your main form. This amounts to adding an override for PreFilterMessage, and looking for the particular message you need to catch. Here are code snippets that catch an escape key on a keydown. You can...

• How do I send keystrokes to an application?

  What is the replacement for VB6's SendKeys command? Use the Send method from the SendKeys class found in the System.Windows.Forms namespace. Contributed from George Shepherd's Windows Forms FAQ

• How do I set the company name that is returned by System.Windows.Forms.Application.CompanyName?

  This is an assembly attribute. The Visual Studio development environment sets it in the AssemblyInfo.cs (or .vb) file. If you open that file, you will see a block of assembly attributes that you can set, including company and version numbers. [assembly...

• How do I catch an exception that occurs anywhere in a Windows Forms application?

  You can handle the Application.ThreadException event from the System.Windows.Forms namespace. using System.Threading; [STAThread] public static void Main() { Application.ThreadException += new ThreadExceptionEventHandler( UnhandledExceptionCatcher );...

• How do I display the PrintPreview as a maximized window and control its zooming?

  You can use the WindowState property of the PrintPreviewDialog class to bring the PrintPreview maximized. To handle zooming, the PrintPreviewDialog has a property, PrintPreviewControl. PrintPreviewControl owns a Zoom property that allows you to set the...

• How do I print a form?

  Unfortunately, there is not a very easy way to print a form. You may implement this function with the steps below: 1.Add a print function to your application. To do this, you should add a PrintDocument component to your application. Please drag a PrintDocument...

• Where can I find a good, succinct introduction to Windows Forms?

  Where can I find a good, succinct introduction to Windows Forms? See Windows Forms: A Modern-Day Programming Model for Writing GUI Applications by Jeff Prosise from MSDN Magazine, February 2001. Also see Using the Microsoft .NET Framework to Create Windows...

• Where do I report bugs?

  Please use the MSDN Product Feedback Center

• How do I get support for .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005?

  Use the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 newsgroups which you can use through the web interface or follow the directions on that that page for using an NNTP reader. For Windows Forms support, see the Forums In addition, there are a number of free and for...

• Where's the Visual Studio 2005 Documentation?

  It's here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/default.aspx The documentation system previews some new design ideas and new URL model as described here . MSDN welcomes your feedback on the new system at that page.

• What's new in Windows Forms 2.0?

  See the Coming in Windows Forms 2.0 section of the Smart Client Developer Center on MSDN. From there you can drilldown into specific Features like the DataViewGrid control, smart tags in the designer, and ClickOnce for deployment.