title: Where is the data for Properties.Settings.Default saved?
body: <p>In my WPF application, I click on <strong>Settings.settings</strong> in the Solution Explorer and enter a <strong>StringCollection</strong> variable with a <strong>User</strong> scope:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/xGMFF.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/xGMFF.png" alt="alt text"></a>
  </p>
  
  <p>in my app.config I see that they are saved there:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;userSettings&gt;
      &lt;TestSettings.Properties.Settings&gt;
          &lt;setting name="Paths" serializeAs="Xml"&gt;
              &lt;value&gt;
                  &lt;ArrayOfString xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                      xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;one&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;two&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;three&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;four&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;five&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;six&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;seven&lt;/string&gt;
                  &lt;/ArrayOfString&gt;
              &lt;/value&gt;
          &lt;/setting&gt;
      &lt;/TestSettings.Properties.Settings&gt;
  &lt;/userSettings&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>then I <strong>run my application</strong> and with this code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>StringCollection paths = Properties.Settings.Default.Paths;
  
  Properties.Settings.Default.Paths.Add("added in code");
  Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
  
  foreach (var path in paths)
  {
      System.Console.WriteLine(path);
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which gives me this <strong>output</strong>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>one
  two
  three
  four
  five
  six
  seven
  added in code
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I <strong>run the application again</strong> and it gives me this output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>one
  two
  three
  four
  five
  six
  seven
  added in code
  added in code
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I look at my <strong>app.config</strong> again and it still has the <strong>original values</strong>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;userSettings&gt;
      &lt;TestSettings.Properties.Settings&gt;
          &lt;setting name="Paths" serializeAs="Xml"&gt;
              &lt;value&gt;
                  &lt;ArrayOfString xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                      xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;one&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;two&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;three&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;four&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;five&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;six&lt;/string&gt;
                      &lt;string&gt;seven&lt;/string&gt;
                  &lt;/ArrayOfString&gt;
              &lt;/value&gt;
          &lt;/setting&gt;
      &lt;/TestSettings.Properties.Settings&gt;
  &lt;/userSettings&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Where are the values that are added by the application being saved?</strong></p>