If you’re writing Windows Forms or WPF application that needs to connect to a number of Dynamics CRM organizations on ad-hoc basis, e.g. custom tool, then try using ConnectionDialog class instead of home-grown connection code. It is very surprising how little attention receive CRM Developers Extensions in general and a little obscure but very handy ConnectionDialog class, in particular. With the help of this class (that has even its own “dedicated” namespace Microsoft.Xrm.Client.Windows.Controls.ConnectionDialog), the usually verbose boilerplate connection code can be reduced to the following:

   ConnectionDialog cd = new ConnectionDialog();

   bool? connected = cd.ShowDialog();

   if (connected.GetValueOrDefault(false))
   {
      using (OrganizationService service =
         new OrganizationService(
             CrmConnection.Parse(cd.ConnectionString)))
      {
         // use CRM organization service
         WhoAmIResponse response =
             service.Execute(
                         new WhoAmIRequest());
      }
   }