Server Activated ServicedComponent and Config Files

Yes, it is possible to specify a per-component application config when using a ServicedComponent with activation type set to Server Application. By default all Server Applications are sharing dllhost.exe.config located in %windir%\system32.  But there are cases when you need to have different configs for different Server Apps. For instance, an important scenario is to have component A using version 1.0 of .Net Framework and component B using version 1.1.

This can be achieved by setting the Application Root Directory for that component to point to a directory where you have two files: application.manifest and application.config. The manifest can be as simple as:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
</assembly>

The application.config will be your normal app config where you can put your specific settings for your component.

[Originally posted Oct 13, 2003]