visual studio 2010 - “Unable to find manifest signing certificate in the certificate store” - even when add new key

Question

I cannot build projects with a strong name key signing - the message in the title always comes up.

Yes the project was initially copied over from another machine. However even if I add a new key via the Signing tab in Project Properties, this error is still shown.

I have tried running Visual Studio as an Administrator and have tried manually adding the keys to Windows Certificate Store.

Help!

Edit: I don't get this error with a new project, but I'd quite like to get this existing project working. It won't work even if I create a new certificate!

Answer 1

I've finally found the solution and really hope this helps someone else too.

1. Edit the .csproj file for the project in question.

2. Delete the following lines of code:

   <PropertyGroup>
      <ManifestCertificateThumbprint>...........</ManifestCertificateThumbprint>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <PropertyGroup>
      <ManifestKeyFile>xxxxxxxx.pfx</ManifestKeyFile>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <PropertyGroup>
      <GenerateManifests>true</GenerateManifests>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <PropertyGroup>
      <SignManifests>false</SignManifests>
   </PropertyGroup>