Calling save would cause an exception Viv but aside from that I will have to think of something else to achieve what I'm after, I just came across this code on code project and thought I'd give it a shot, it's OK but very rigid in its design , what I'm after is a file ( doesn't have to be app..config ) containing values that are grouped in sections ( like the old INI files ) I suppose I can use plain old XML files or indeed INI files.