Save the Size and Location of a Form

The Windows registry is an ideal place for storing position and size information for a form. Typically, you'll store information about each form in a separate key, perhaps using the class name of the form. These keys will be stored under an application-specific key.

To automate this process, it helps to create a dedicated class that saves and retrieves form settings. The FormSettingStore class shown in the following example fills this role. This class provides a SaveSettings method that accepts a form and writes its size and position information to the registry, as well as an ApplySettings method that accepts a form and applies the settings from the registry. The registry key path and the name of the form subkey are stored as class member variables.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.Win32;

public class FormSettingStore {

    private string regPath;
    private string formName;
    private RegistryKey key;

    public string RegistryPath {
        get {return regPath;)
    }

    public string FormName {
        get {return formName;}
    }

    public FormSettingStore(string registryPath, string formName) {
    
        this.regPath = registryPath;
        this.formName = formName;

        // Create the key if it doesn't exist.
        key = Registry.LocalMachine.CreateSubKey(registryPath + formName);
    }

    public void SaveSettings(System.Windows.Forms.Form form) {
    
        key.SetValue("Height", form.Height);
        key.SetValue("Width", form.Width);
        key.SetValue("Left", form.Left);
        key.SetValue("Top", form.Top);
    }

    public void ApplySettings(System.Windows.Forms.Form form) {
    
        // If form settings are not available, the current form settings
        // are used instead.
        form.Height = (int)key.GetValue("Height", form.Height);
        form.Width = (int)key.GetValue("Width", form.Width);
        form.Left = (int)key.GetValue("Left", form.Left);
        form.Top = (int)key.GetValue("Top", form.Top);
    }
}

To use the FormSettingStore class, simply add the event-handling code shown here to any form. This code saves the form properties when the form closes and restores them when the form is loaded.

private FormSettingStore formSettings;

private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {

    formSettings = new FormSettingStore(@"Software\MyApp\", this.Name);
    formSettings.ApplySettings(this);
}

private void Form1_Closed(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {

    formSettings.SaveSettings(this);
}

Technorati : Windows Registry to Save Size of Form