A few very nooby questions.

Question

So, I just started learning Visual C# as my first real programming language (did some MS basic 1.0 in the 80s)
I have a few nooby questions I was hoping you could help me out with.

Let's say I'm making a small form based app.

1. Where is it good practice to declare my variables?

 namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
             
            public Form1()

        {
 
            InitializeComponent();

        }

2. How do I make it so the settings file end up in the same folder as the compiled .exe?

I thank that's it for now...