Ok so I have a subproject off of a main project.

It has a settings file that stores user color preferences for the UI, a few fonts, and a few datagridview column order preferences. Each time I publish a new version of the project, the update when it comes down to them using the built in check for updates functionality of vs overwrites their preference file, even if it is older.

This settings file is not in the list of application files or I could just tell it to overwrite only if newer.

My guess is the only solution is to use a non-settings file for this type of thing, or somehow have my program copy out a user's saved one to another location, then copy it back in if it finds one?