title: "Unrecognized configuration section connectionStrings."
body: <p>I had been working on a project in VS2005 that utilized a local connection to an Access DB.</p>
  
  <p>In the past week, I installed .NET framework 3.5 for use w/ a different project as well as VS6.</p>
  
  <p>I went back to my VS2005 application and suddenly there are big issues:</p>
  
  <p>In the designer for any class utilizing my OLEDB connection showed this:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Unable to cast object of type 'System.Configuration.DefaultSection' to
    type 'System.Configuration.ConnectionStringsSection'.  Hide     </p>
    
    <p>at System.Configuration.Configuration.get_ConnectionStrings() at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Design.Serialization.ConfigurationHelperService.ReadConnectionStrings(String
    configFileName, DocData configDocData, String prefix) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Editors.SettingsDesigner.AppConfigSerializer.Deserialize(DesignTimeSettings
    Settings, String SectionName, DocData AppConfigDocData, MergeValueMode
    mergeMode, IUIService UIService) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Editors.SettingsGlobalObjects.SettingsFileGlobalObject.LoadSettings(String
    fileName) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Editors.SettingsGlobalObjects.SettingsFileGlobalObject.BuildType()
    at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Editors.SettingsGlobalObjects.SettingsFileGlobalObject.GetObjectType()
    at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Design.GlobalType.get_ObjectType() at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Design.GlobalObject.GetHashCode() at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Design.GlobalObjectService.GlobalKey.GetHashCode()
    at System.Collections.Generic.ObjectEqualityComparer<code>1.GetHashCode(T
    obj) at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary</code>2.FindEntry(TKey key) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Design.GlobalObjectService.GetGlobalObjects(Type
    baseType) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Design.GlobalObjectService.GetGlobalObjects()
    at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Serialization.CodeDom.AggregateTypeResolutionService.GetTypeFromGlobalObjects(String
    name, Boolean throwOnError, Boolean ignoreCase) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Serialization.CodeDom.AggregateTypeResolutionService.GetType(String
    name, Boolean throwOnError, Boolean ignoreCase) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Serialization.CodeDom.AggregateTypeResolutionService.GetType(String
    name, Boolean throwOnError) at
    System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.CodeDomSerializerBase.GetType(ITypeResolutionService
    trs, String name, Dictionary<code>2 names) at
    System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.CodeDomSerializerBase.FillStatementTable(IDesignerSerializationManager
    manager, IDictionary table, Dictionary</code>2 names,
    CodeStatementCollection statements, String className) at
    System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.TypeCodeDomSerializer.Deserialize(IDesignerSerializationManager
    manager, CodeTypeDeclaration declaration) at
    System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.CodeDomDesignerLoader.PerformLoad(IDesignerSerializationManager
    manager) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Serialization.CodeDom.VSCodeDomDesignerLoader.PerformLoad(IDesignerSerializationManager
    serializationManager) at
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Serialization.CodeDom.VSCodeDomDesignerLoader.DeferredLoadHandler.Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextBufferDataEvents.OnLoadCompleted(Int32
    fReload)</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>And when I ran the app, I encounter the following exception on startup:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>"Unrecognized configuration section connectionStrings."</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>In looking online, these issues seem to commonly relate to things built in VS2005 and deployed on .net 1.1 framework; but this is all running as a windows forms application locally within VS (not on IIS).  I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling VS2K5 to no avail.</p>
  
  <p>Any thoughts?
  Thanks,
  Matt</p>