Vista - try to update a Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 ClickOnce application after the certificate that you used to sign the installation expires, error message recieved

Any Updates on this
Thanks
Naren

I beleive this is 'normal' behaviour.

If a click once application is installed with certificate "A" and gets
updated through clickonce with certificate "A" - all is well...

but if you change certificates ( to certificate "B" ) you will get an error
because now the original certificate doesnt match the new one.

I believe your only solution is to get original clients on ( Certificate
"A" ) to manually install the app again with the certificate "B".

Lets say you had a 'datafile' in your clickonce application...
that datafile will not transfer over to the new app ( that uses "B" ) as
well I beleive.

I just finished reading up on this ( first run thru ) but I believe thats
what I have read.
I can re-search the chapter for 'proof' if you require it...
here is the book i am talking about:
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Client-D...5490879&sr=8-1

Miro


"Narendra Kumar" <narendra.kumar@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ehNRoWmlJHA.5016@xxxxxx

I have found the snippet of what I was talking about...
here it is:

If clickonce sees that an update is available but that the update is signed
by a different publisher certificate than the one used to sign the version
currently installed on the client machine, click once will disable the
application and present the message box.
"Application cannot be started. Contact the application vendor" "ok"
"details"

The error in the details will specify that the problem is "The deployment
identity does not match the subscription".

It should have warned you when you changed certificates ( in vs2005 and up )
"The application is signed with a different key than the existing
application on the server. Do you want to overwrite it"


So I still stick to my original posting - that this is normal behavour.

Good book by the way... well worth the price and a good read about
clickonce.
I recommend it.

Miro


"Miro" <miro@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O8paRhplJHA.1388@xxxxxx

I have done some more research on this, and it seems this issue is fixed in
vs2008.

Here is the microsoft connect cut and paste:
Cheers'

Type Bug ID 207513
Status Closed (Fixed) Access Restriction Public
Opened By james_cline_ Blocking Issue Yes
Opened 20/09/2006 Submission Language English
Resolved 08/02/2007 5:33:49 PM Closed 26/02/2007 2:04:22 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DescriptionOur Code Signing Certificate through Thawte is expiring so we
renewed and in the process you are *required* to generate a new private key
which your renewed certificate will then use. Signing your ClickOnce
application with the new certificate causes ClickOnce to fail to update with
the following error:

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed
later in the log.
* Activation of C:\Documents and Settings\JCline\Start
Menu\Programs\TestClickOnceNewCert\TestClickOnceNewCert.appref-ms resulted
in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
+ The deployment identity does not match the subscription.


It seems ClickOnce requires Code Signing to properly identify the publisher
but in doing so, it is incompatible with the industry standards because
renewing certificates seems to always involve getting a new private key and
since this happens any code signed with the new certificate is now
incompatible with the installed application. This results in a nasty error
and forces our clients to uninstall and reinstall our software which is
unacceptable and makes ClickOnce basically useless unless there is a
workaround....

Comments
This has been fixed in our Orcas release.
Posted by Microsoft on 08/02/2007 at 5:17 PM





"Miro" <miro@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uSozz9qlJHA.1172@xxxxxx