Note: This article was originally published in 2008. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current General documentation for the latest information.

So, I was trying to do an application I have been avoiding for the past 8 years and the first thing I began working at was the authentication part of it. I remembered ASP.Net had membership and roles features with their authentication and login functionality so I was looking around for that. This time I decided to make it simple by just doing a Windows application using WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). To my surprise it seems you can only use the authentication in ASP.Net and there is nothing built-in for a Windows Application. This time around though (ASP.Net 3.5) they have the Client application services which “enables your Windows-based applications to use the ASP.Net login (authentication), roles, and profile (settings) services” (Visual Studio 2008 Services Screen). It is a pain to figure out how to set everything but here is the general overview of what I’ve discovered thus far:

  1. You need some sort of database to store your users and roles and what not just as in ASP.Net
  2. You need a web service to provide authentication services for your Windows application
  3. You need to check out (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb546195.aspx “this walkthrough”). After hours of internet search I think this is your one place to learn 90% of what you need.