Mr. Mancunian, thanks for the reply.

The Registry link is in HKCU and is: C:\Users\Jeff\A ppData\Local\Ap ps\2.0\D5ZPYN2E .G6B\0YHBPWKG.Y JD\ab2l..tion_0 000000000000000 _0001.0000_bd80 8c8132a0d2ac\AB 2L6WS.exe -hide; while the Desktop shortcut shows no such link (it's a ClickOnce deployment). The shortcut properties are:
Name: AB2L 6-Way Sync.appref-ms
Type: ClickOnce Application Reference
Folder Path: C:\Users\Jeff\D esktop...

Why does my app not load the saved user scope my.settings when it starts by way of the registry run key? This key starts programs after the user login, per microsoft. So why does it not load the saved user settings? The program does start up, but all the areas on the form where saved user scope settings should be, are the default values (mostly empty strings). (The user scope settings are there if I start my program by the desktop shortcut.) ...