I'm working on a service that uses a fair amount of configuration. I'm choosing to use XML as my primary storage mechanism because I don't want to deal with a database connection. Just write an XML file and throw it where it needs to go. The build Configuration namespace in .NET does a great job of making this really easy.
To make it even easier though I use the XSD tool to generate class files for my XML. It isn't necassarily the best way to get things done, but it get it done. The benefit is that if I find out that I need to add something I just add it and the regenerate. My code just loads the XML via XMLSerializer and then talks to the classes.
Making it even easier is to wrap the XSD tool in a batch file so that I can regenerate without having to remember any of the switches I used. in this case:
xsd /c /l:cs /n:GuerillaProgrammer.SomeProduct.Settings /nologo Configuration.xsd
each time I make a change I just rerun the batch. Takes an entire 5 seconds. if that.
Being able to work with XML in this fashion is really nice. Give it a try.