I have a c# application that contains 2 methods. One to create an xml document, and one to load all of the nodes of the xml document to a tuple list.

using System.Xml;

namespace SOXMLExample
{
    internal class Program
    {
        public static List<Tuple<string, string>> tupleXMLList = new List<Tuple<string, string>>();

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            CreateXMLFile();
            LoadContentsToTuple();
        }

        private static void CreateXMLFile()
        {
            string folderPath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
            string xmlPath = Path.Combine(folderPath, "XMLFileToBeEncrypted.xml");

            XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
            xmlDocument.LoadXml(xmlPath);

            XmlElement xmlElement = xmlDocument.CreateElement(string.Empty, "usernames", string.Empty);
            XmlAttribute xmlAttribute = xmlDocument.CreateAttribute("FirstName");
            xmlAttribute.Value = "John";
            xmlElement.Attributes.Append(xmlAttribute);

            xmlDocument.Save(xmlPath);
        }

        private static void LoadContentsToTuple()
        {
            tupleXMLList.Clear();

            string folderPath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
            string xmlPath = Path.Combine(folderPath, "XMLFileToBeEncrypted.xml");

            XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
            xmlDocument.LoadXml(xmlPath);

            XmlNodeList XMLNodes = xmlDocument.SelectNodes("//usernames");

            foreach (XmlNode item in XMLNodes)
            {
                string FirstName = item.Attributes["FirstName"].Value;
                string LastName = item.InnerText;

                tupleXMLList.Add(new Tuple<string, string>(FirstName, LastName));
            }
        }
    }
}

Currently, if the app were to be published, I can just go to the location of the xml file and open it to view all the contents. Instead, I want the program to create an XML file that cannot be opened directly by the user.

I have no clue how to do this since I was just introduced to XML a few weeks ago. I did some research and found that it is possible to encrypt the entire file and then decrypt it when the file needs to be read from. However, I feel like there is an easier way to keep the user from being able to open the file. Maybe something related to file permissions?