Solution distribution

Putting the connections string in a plain text ("notepad") file is not typical and is not the way Microsoft has designed the software to do. It can be done but Microsoft has had many years and thousands of systems to learn from. I recommend reading relevant articles in this web site to best leverage the experience and knowledge of many experienced developers. Look for articles about deploying, publishing or installing an application andor creating a setup for an applicaiton. Those are the terms that are most used for "distributing" an application.

The most typical solution is to put the connection string in a property/setting. .Net has classes for reading and writing properties. You can use the existing classes and IDE designer to manage connection strings and that will minimize the amoutn of work you do. Note that there is a difference between properties for your project and the properties for the applicaion. The project properties are used by Visual Studio to manage the project. The application properties are used by your application during execution of the application.

Look in the properties for your project; you will see a "Settings" tab. In the settings tab is a table showing the settings for the project. For each setting there is a Type; one type that you can use is Connection String. The settings are stored in a special XML file. I have described the settings page more extensively in a few other threads.

If you put the connection string in a setting, then the VS IDE can generate a setup that allows the connection string in the settings to be modified when the application is installed. I hope that the articles in this web site provide all the information you need to do that.