What is the purpose of machine.config file in .NET?

Your application will first access the settings in web.config file and if any specific setting is not available in web.config file then it will use the settings defined in machine.config file. Here is a sample structure of web.config file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="connectionStrings"
type="System.Configuration.ConnectionStringsSection, System.Configuration, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" requirePermission="false"/>
</configSections>
<runtime/>
<connectionStrings>
<add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="data source= .\SQLEXPRESS;Integrated Security=SSPI; AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|aspnetdb.mdf;User Instance=true" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>
<system.data>
<DbProviderFactories>
<add name="Odbc Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.Odbc" description Odbc" type="System.Data.Odbc.OdbcFactory, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
</system.data>
<system.web/>
</configuration>

This is just a sample file. Many more tags are available in machine.config file.

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