Where are settings saved for WCF Service Applications?

Question

Default Settings for a WCF Service Application are stored in the web.config file and are Read Only because only Application settings are allowed i.e. you cannot change the Scope from "Application" to "User" in the settings designer like
with other components.  So, in order to save changes to settings the WCF Service Application will need to create a setting property at runtime like this:
System.Configuration.SettingsProperty newProperty;
newProperty = new System.Configuration.SettingsProperty("NewSetting");
newProperty.IsReadOnly = false;
newProperty.DefaultValue = "New Setting";
Properties.Settings.Default.Properties.Add(newProperty);
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
OK...this works, but I've looked everywhere and I can't find where the new setting property is being saved.  I have already looked in the C:\Users\[username]\AppData\[Local or Roaming]\[Company Name]\[AppName...etc.]\[version]\user.config and although
a user.config file was created it does not contain the new property.  Anyone have a clue?
Actually, this doesn't work...the settings are not saved to the file system.  I located some other posts and modified my code as follows, but the settings are still not saved to the file system.
System.Configuration.SettingsProperty newProperty;
newProperty = new System.Configuration.SettingsProperty("NewSetting");
newProperty.Provider = Properties.Settings.Default.Providers["LocalFileSettingsProvider"];
newProperty.Attributes.Add(typeof(System.Configuration.UserScopedSettingAttribute), new System.Configuration.UserScopedSettingAttribute());
newProperty.PropertyType = typeof(string);
newProperty.IsReadOnly = false;
newProperty.DefaultValue = "New Setting";
try
Properties.Settings.Default.Properties.Add(newProperty);
catch
//Just ignore it for now.
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
The new setting appears to be saved only in memory.  If I close Visual Studio then the setting is lost.  Also, I deleted the C:\Users\[username]\AppData\[Local or Roaming]\[Company Name]\[AppName...etc.]\[version]\user.config files and the file
is no longer being created.
Looks like I will need to explicitly load/save a text file or use the registry to persist changes to settings.

Answer 1

Hello Steven,
>>The new setting appears to be saved only in memory. 
It seems that the Save() method only saves these runtime added in memory, I suggest you could check the Save method source code since now the .NET is source opened:http://referencesource.microsoft.com/#System/sys/system/configuration/ApplicationSettingsBase.cs,9664b0111a35af52
>>Looks like I will need to explicitly load/save a text file or use the registry to persist changes to settings.
Someone provides an implementation about this approach, you could check it:
http://stackoverflow.com/a/1075318
Or you could set it in a register entry:
http://stackoverflow.com/a/26518724
Regards.
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