---
title: "Accessing and Updating System Settings via Settings.xml"
slug: "accessing-system-settings-settings-xml"
description: "Learn how to access values stored in the Decisions settings.xml file using Visual Studio code examples."
updated: 2026-04-27T20:46:53Z
published: 2026-04-28T14:13:01Z
canonical: "documentation.decisions.com/accessing-system-settings-settings-xml"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://documentation.decisions.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Accessing and Updating System Settings via Settings.xml

## Overview

The system settings can be accessed from the **S****ettings.xml** file which is located on a local installation of Decisions at **C:\Program Files\Decisions\Decisions Server**. The values of this file can be accessed and updated from an XML editor or via code.

## Example

The following example will demonstrate how to access and update the DefaultAccountEmailAddress setting via code.

1. In a new C# project in any desired IDE, add a reference to **DecisionsFramework.dll** and add **using DecisionsFramework.ServiceLayer;**
2. To access the DefaultAcocuntEmailAddress setting, add **Settings.GetSettings().DefaultAccountEmailAddress.** Add the following lines to update and save the changes to the setting.

```csharp
Settings.GetSettings().DefaultAccountEmailAddress =  "Updated@decisions.com";
Settings.SaveSettings();
```

Below is a complete code example on how to access and update/save various settings from in the settings file in a console application.

```csharp
 using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using DecisionsFramework.ServiceLayer;
 
namespace DecisionsSampleAccessingSystemSettingsXML
{
    class AccessingSettingsXMLExample
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
 
            Console.WriteLine("LogFileMaxSize: " + Settings.GetSettings().LogFileMaxSize);
            Console.WriteLine("Bypass SMTP Server: " + Settings.GetSettings().Mail.ByPassSmtpServer);
            Console.WriteLine("Default Account Email Address: " + Settings.GetSettings().DefaultAccountEmailAddress);
            Console.WriteLine("Changing default account email address...");
            Settings.GetSettings().DefaultAccountEmailAddress = "Updated@decisions.com";
            Settings.SaveSettings();
            Console.WriteLine("Default Account Email Address: " + Settings.GetSettings().DefaultAccountEmailAddress);
 
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}
```

The output of the above code will be the following:

```csharp
 LogFileMaxSize: 10485760
Bypass SMTP Server: True
Default Account Email Address: admin@decisions.com
Changing default account email address...
Default Account Email Address: Updated@decisions.com
```