Application settings, Application resources or Registry?

[venablc]

Hi,

Apologies if this is in the the incorrect forum...

I was wondering if anyone knew the benefits/drawbacks of using either Application settings, Application resources or the good old registry?

As far as i can tell there are no performance or security benefits.

Also when it comes to senesitive data such as database connection strings, what is the best way to store these in terms of security?

[jmcilhinney]

Resources are part of your compiled executable so they are only useful for static data. Because the data is within your executable it is safe from tampering.

Use of application settings is integrated into the Framework so is simple to implement. Settings are stored in the XML config files so they are easily accessible from within the application or they can be hand-edited if that's appropriate.

The Registry should generally be avoided in .NET applications unless you have a specific need to use it.

Connection strings can be stored in the config file and encrypted if required.

[venablc]

Why should the registry be avoided in .Net? what are the disadvantages?

also what do you mean by the "config file"? if the resources are compiled as part of the excutable would it be safe to store the connection string here?

[jmcilhinney]

Microsoft recommend against using the Registry because it is getting overloaded and has become unwieldy. .NET has added the configuration system specifically for .NET apps to use to store configuration information. The config file is an XML file stored in the same folder as your assembly. You can add one to your project explicitly if you want but there are many operations that will add one automatically because they need to store data in it, like saving a Data Source connection string or adding application settings.

It's a bad idea to store the connection string as a resource because changing it would require recompilation.

[Dave Sell]

It's a bad idea to store the connection string as a resource because changing it would require recompilation.

So the best place to store a connection string is... The registry?

[jmcilhinney]

So the best place to store a connection string is... The registry?

Is that supposed to be a joke?

The Registry should generally be avoided in .NET applications unless you have a specific need to use it.

Connection strings can be stored in the config file and encrypted if required.

Microsoft recommend against using the Registry because it is getting overloaded and has become unwieldy.

.NET has added the configuration system specifically for .NET apps to use to store configuration information.