A method, system, and program product for generating and processing application settings for a software application using an application configuration component operating on a computer system. An application settings object containing a plurality of application settings is generated for the software application. The application settings object are serialized and stored into an Extensible Markup Language (XML) application settings file on the computer system. A new instance of the application configuration component is generated. A request is received from the software application for an application settings object for a specific environment and module. If located on the computer system, the XML application settings file is deserialized into the application settings object. Each property of the application settings object is then processed and the application settings object is returned to the software application.