The following Subroutines will encode as dictionary(of String, String) as a binary element to save to a hard drive. I use this to save Settings that I do not put into a registry.
#Region "Binary Saving / Loading"
Dim SettingsFile as string = My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\Settings.bin"
Private Sub SaveBinary(ByVal d As Dictionary(Of String, String))
Dim MyFormatter As New BinaryFormatter()
Dim MyFile As New FileStream(SettingsFile, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None)
MyFormatter.Serialize(MyFile, d)
MyFile.Close()
End Sub
Private Function LoadBinary() As Dictionary(Of String, String)
Dim d As New Dictionary(Of String, String)
Dim MyFormatter As New BinaryFormatter()
Dim MyFile As New FileStream(SettingsFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.None)
d = MyFormatter.Deserialize(MyFile)
MyFile.Close()
Return d
End Function
#End Region