I'm currently developing a basic windows service with a configuration file (servicename.exe.config), the default configuration file you access in a Visual Studio project properties. This service installs and runs correctly, however I am unable to find the configuration file of the installed service.

Read/Write code snippet:

/// <summary>
/// An idle period between sending warning emails to avoid spamming
/// </summary>
public static short WarningEmailIdleMin
{
    get
    {
        return Properties.Settings.Default.WarningEmailIdleMin;
    }
    set
    {
        Properties.Settings.Default.WarningEmailIdleMin = value;
        Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
    }
}

Project settings image:

• The service is running under the local system account
• When stopping the service, changing a setting in the servicename.exe.config (next to the executable) and starting the service does not change the setting (proving its not pulling the settings from this config file)
• When altering a setting in the service code, stopping and starting the service, the setting has the updated value from the previous run (proving it is being saved somewhere)
• AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile points to the above config file

I have looked in the sub-directories of AppData in the default and public user accounts, I have also looked in C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\

Any help would be appreciated :)

EDIT: Added code snippet of save/read

You are using user settings. These settings are not stored in servicename.exe.config next to the executable. I found this article at MSDN. It describes where user.config is stored and how to get the file path of that config.

Personally I don't think that using user settings is a good choice for windows service which by default runs under local system account (if not set differently). I would suggest to use a local file database (i.e. sqlite or Sqlserver CE etc.) for these settings.