title: reading from app.config file
body: <p>I am trying to read StartingMonthColumn and CategoryHeadingColumn
  from the below app.config file using the code</p>
  
  <pre><code>ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["StartingMonthColumn"]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but it is returning null, also ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Count returns zero</p>
  
  <p>Please help me to read this in my windows application</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;configuration&gt;
      &lt;configSections&gt;
          &lt;sectionGroup name="userSettings" type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" &gt;
              &lt;section name="CTARepository.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" allowExeDefinition="MachineToLocalUser" requirePermission="false" /&gt;
          &lt;/sectionGroup&gt;
      &lt;/configSections&gt;
      &lt;userSettings&gt;
          &lt;CTARepository.Properties.Settings&gt;
              &lt;setting name="Setting" serializeAs="String"&gt;
                  &lt;value /&gt;
              &lt;/setting&gt;
          &lt;/CTARepository.Properties.Settings&gt;
      &lt;/userSettings&gt;
      &lt;appSettings&gt;
          &lt;add key="StartingMonthColumn" value="7"/&gt;
          &lt;add key="CategoryHeadingColumn" value="1"/&gt;
      &lt;/appSettings&gt;
  &lt;/configuration&gt;
  </code></pre>