public static bool ReadFile<T>(String name, ref T toBeSet)
{
    FileStream xmlStream = null;

    try
    {
    XmlSerializer xmlSer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

    xmlStream = new FileStream(name, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.None);
    toBeSet = (T)xmlSer.Deserialize(xmlStream);
    return true;
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
    Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
    return false;
    }
    finally
    {
    if (xmlStream != null)
        xmlStream.Close();
    }
}





public static bool WriteFile<T>(String name, T toWrite)
{
    FileStream xmlStream = null;

    try
    {
    XmlSerializer xmlSer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

    xmlStream = new FileStream(name, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None);
    xmlSer.Serialize(xmlStream, toWrite);
    return true;
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
    Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
    return false;
    }
    finally
    {
    if (xmlStream != null)
        xmlStream.Close();
    }
}


Used as:

class Blah
{
    public String Name;
    public String Value;
}


void saveBlah()
{
    Blah blah = new Blah();
    blah.Name = "blah";
    blah.Value = "1";

    if(!WriteFile<Blah>("blah.xml",blah)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Failed!");
    }

}