The syntax that you're using applies to the pre-defined 'appSettings' section - which is not what you are dealing with here. I don't know if there's a more elegant way of accessing a ClientSettingsSection but something like this will work:

ClientSettingsSection y = (ClientSettingsSection) ConfigurationManager.GetSection("applicationSettings/MYEXE.Properties.Settings");
string s = y.Settings.Get("CSVFile").Value.ValueXml.InnerText;

UPDATE: If the app.config was created from Settings.Settings then won't this work:

string s = Properties.Settings.Default.CSVFile;

>I am trying to retrieve an application setting but an empty string is being returned on a Windows FormApplication
>
> string importFile = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["CSVFile"];
> MessageBox.Show("Import File = " + importFile);
>
>My MyApp.Exe_Config is:
>
>

><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
><configuration>
>    <configSections>
>        <sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
>            <section name="MYEXE.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
>        </sectionGroup>
>    </configSections>
>    <applicationSettings>
>        <MYEXE.Properties.Settings>
>            <setting name="CSVFile" serializeAs="String">
>                <value>This is a CSV File Setting</value>
>            </setting>
>        </MYEXE.Properties.Settings>
>    </applicationSettings>
></configuration>
>

>
>Any ideas of what could be wrong.
>TIA, Gerard