Loading custom configuration files
the articles posted by Ricky are very good, but unfortunately they don’t answer your question. To solve your problem you should try this piece of code: ExeConfigurationFileMap configMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap(); configMap.ExeConfigFilename = @”d:\test\justAConfigFile.config.whateverYouLikeExtension”; Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(configMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None); If need to access a value within the config you can use the index operator: config.AppSettings.Settings[“test”].Value;