Importing keys for VS2010

Monday, May 10. 2010

Visual studio 2010 has removed the prompt for a password when you use codesigning with a .pfx file. This means you'll often get this error message:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1970,9): error MSB3325: Cannot import the following key file: mykey.pfx. The key file may be password protected. To correct this, try to import the certificate again or manually install the certificate to the Strong Name CSP with the following key container name:
VS_KEY_C0D0ACB5FAE2DFE3 [C:\Source\MyProject.csproj]
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1970,9): error MSB3321: Importing key file "mykey.pfx" was canceled. [C:\Source\MyProject.csproj]

This is down as a connect bug here https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/524792/importing-key-file-was-canceled?wa=wsignin1.0 and sadly no one gives the correct answer.

This is somewhat cryptic and doesn't actually tell you how to fix the problem. So here for future reference is the answer (obviously change the file name and key to match your error message) run it from the command line:

sn.exe -i mykey.pfx VS_KEY_C0D0ACB5FAE2DFE3

Hope this helps.

Just noticed that you use certmgr.exe for installation of pfx for ClickOnce deployment purposes

Posted by Peter Ibbotson at 16:54 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Excellent. This was exactly what I needed (though I'll point out that the VS_KEY_ value varied on my machine).

Jacob

#1 Jacob (Homepage) on 2010-05-20 20:52 (Reply)

I had the same problem, and following the steps in this blog post fixed it for me. I am running Visual Studio 2010 on Windows 2008 Server.

http://polydevmono.blogspot.com/2006/10/error-8013141c-in-visual-studio-or.html

#2 Anonymous on 2010-08-10 23:07 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry
Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.