1. A method for generating and processing application settings for a software application using an application configuration tool operating on a computer system, comprising: generating an application settings object comprising at least one settings class having a plurality of application settings for the software application; marking at least one settings class member with an encrypted attribute; encrypting only a value of the at least one settings class member marked with the encrypted attribute; serializing and storing the application settings object into an application settings file on the computer system; generating a new instance of the application configuration tool; exposing, by the application configuration tool, a property that allows calling applications to get a current environment code used in building configuration file names, wherein a network comprises a plurality of machines comprising at least one developer workstation, at least one user acceptance machine, at least one non-production machine, and at least one production machine, and the current environment code designates whether a respective machine in the network is a developer workstation, a non-production machine, or a production machine; receiving a request from the software application for an application settings object for a specific environment and module; when a configuration file is not found, creating the application settings object using a default constructor for a class of the application settings object; deserializing the application settings file into the application settings object; processing each property of the application settings object; returning the application settings object to the software application; and automatically decrypting an encrypted value of the at least one settings class member when the encrypted value is loaded and accessed in the software application.