[tor-dev] use tor in my app

I've written an Windows 7 Visual Basic application that downloads info from a website, that I'd like to use tor with. I've downloaded tor browser, and if I open the browser it establishes a connection to the tor network and my application runs just fine. However, if I instead run tor via tor.exe, my app gives the exception

" No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:9150"

which is the same message I get if I run the app without first starting tor. I confirmed that tor.exe is running as a process in Task Manager. I've tried multiple versions of torrc. My current one is:

# This file was generated by Tor; if you edit it, comments will not be preserved

# The old torrc file was renamed to torrc.orig.1 or similar, and Tor will ignore it

AvoidDiskWrites 1

Log notice stdout

#Log debug file c:/program files/tor/debug.log

DataDirectory C:\Users\Terry\Desktop\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor

DirReqStatistics 0

GeoIPFile C:\Users\Terry\Desktop\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor\geoip

GeoIPv6File C:\Users\Terry\Desktop\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor\geoip6

SocksPort 9150

ControlPort 9151

CookieAuthentication 1

## fteproxy configuration

ClientTransportPlugin fte exec TorBrowser\Tor\PluggableTransports\fteproxy --managed

ClientTransportPlugin flashproxy exec TorBrowser\Tor\PluggableTransports\flashproxy-client --register :0 :9000

## meek configuration

ClientTransportPlugin meek exec TorBrowser\Tor\PluggableTransports\terminateprocess-buffer TorBrowser\Tor\PluggableTransports\meek-client-torbrowser --exit-on-stdin-eof -- TorBrowser\Tor\PluggableTransports\meek-client

I can't figure out what configuration settings the tor browser is using that are different from what's in the torrc. I've searched the documentation, and requested help from help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, who tell me that my problem is outside the scope of the help desk, and suggested I try here.

Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated.