how to load a form only at the first time after program is installed

Question

My speech recognition project include 2 forms form1 & form2. Form2 is my main form but before loading form2 my program take a variable value from user through form1 and pass it to form2. It means at start my program opens form1 takes value & pass it to form2 then form2 is shown. Now my question is how to make form1 load only at programs 1st launch after installation and after 1st launch directly form2 is loaded thereafter? means form1 should not be loaded after that..

Answer 1

I suggest to use a simple textfile where you could store the input value recorded the first time your app starts, then, check if the file with the value exists and read it back.

For Example

string customValue = string.Empty;
string appData = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);
appData = Path.Combine(appData, "MyAppName");
if(!Directory.Exists(appData))
    Directory.CreateDirectory(appData);
string appDataFile = Path.Combine(appData, "MyAppNameSettings.txt");
if(File.Exists(appDataFile))
    customValue = File.ReadAllText(appDataFile);
else
{
    customValue = AskUserForTheFirstTimeValue();
    File.WriteAllText(appDataFile, customValue);
}

The file is stored in a subfolder of the common application data (C:\programdata) created to store your data files. You check if the file exists at first launch. If the file exists you read its content (assumed to be a simple string here), if the file doesn't exist then you ask the input and store the value for the successive runs of your app.

Answer 2

You can create a Registry Key in Windows Registry (regedit), and when you start your program verify if its exists and the value.

Link about Registry Keys:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.win32.registrykey(v=vs.110).aspx

Answer 3

You should have a settings file that keeps a variable like IsFirstRun = true; This application should be distributed and compiled with this file, at start up you should read this file and if you encounter the true state you should load the appropriate forms. You should also ensure that the value is immediately set to false for the second launch condition.

have a look at .net's setting class.

Answer 4

There are two ways I can suggest:

First one

Use the application configuration file:

Creating such file in c# is pretty easy, per usual if you start with a standard Windows Forms Project Template you will most likely already have an app.config in that project, if not, follow instructions from here (under Application Configuration Files).

Add a simple boolean value to the file like so (that appSettings-node is created under the root configuration-node:

<appSettings>
    <add key="FirstRun" value="true" />
 </appSettings>

In your first form, where you do your application configuration you add code to manipulate your app.config programmatically using the ConfigurationManager-Class for the event that configuration has been finished and can be saved (probably some button click, note that you will need a Reference to System.Configuration):

Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);

bool myVal = bool.Parse(config.AppSettings.Settings["FirstRun"].Value);

if (myVal)
{
    // MessageBox.Show("yep, its true");

    config.AppSettings.Settings["FirstRun"].Value = false.ToString();
    config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
    ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings");
}
else
{
    // MessageBox.Show("na, its not true anymore.");
}

Second one

Use a property grid for your application configuration:

Since from your description it seems you only use the first form to enter some application configuration values, I would recommend using the PropertyGrid-Control for that.

That control can be easily bound to an object that exposes some properties (what a surprise) that are then used to render a standardized control containing captions and value selection controls dependend on the property's types, for example:

public class Settings
{
    public int MyProperty1 { get; set; }

    public string MyProperty2 { get; set; }
}

Then you check at your program start, whether the configuration file (you define the path) exists, and if so, try to deserialize an object from its xml (sample below works for primitive types, for more complex ones you might have to extend the serializer, but you get the idea).

That serialized object represents your saved application settings, so you do not need to open up the propertygrid-form anymore.

If no file could be found the grid gets initialized with a simple new constructed object and you show that form:

this goes into your initialization code:

FileInfo file = new FileInfo("SaveHere.xml");
if (file.Exists)
{
    using(StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("SaveHere.xml"))
    {
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Settings));
        Settings mySettings = (Settings)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
        reader.Close();
    }
}
else
{
    this.propertyGrid1.SelectedObject = new Settings();
    // show form code
}

this code goes into the event code where you want to save your configuration

using(StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter("SaveHere.xml",false))
{
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(this.propertyGrid1.SelectedObject.GetType());
    serializer.Serialize(writer, this.propertyGrid1.SelectedObject);
    writer.Close();
}