title: How to debug the loading of app.config files
body: <p>Does anyone know if there is a way to get some visibility into the process of loading app.config files? </p>
  
  <p>I've encountered a number of situations where something is going wrong in that process (most often a bad value in the config file), but it takes a lot of guessing or process of elimination to find the problem. </p>
  
  <p>For example, some of the following areas have caused me trouble:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Configuring the trace system and defining listeners</li>
  <li>Managing .NET versions (the <code>useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy</code> and associated nodes)</li>
  <li>Settings, especially when trying to manage settings for multiple assemblies</li>
  <li>Assembly Manifests (I know, not really app.config but in the same bucket of XML configured startup options)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>This may be wishful thinking, but it would be great if there was some secret log that could be enabled, or some way to force the runtime to give out more information as it is loading the configuration system. </p>