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I have completed an application I have made in Visual Studio 14.0, but when I tried to publish the program, I get an error as Visual Studio cannot find 'SignTool.exe'. I have searched my Hard drive a few times for this but it is nowhere on my PC. Can anyone help me find it or download it?

Catquatwa
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8 Answers8

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I had the same issue but installing the Windows 8.1 SDK as per Catquatwa's answer did not work for me (signtool.exe was still missing from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\vX\Bin).

I stumbled across this solution: http://www.benedykt.net/2015/08/12/missing-signtool-exe-w-visual-studio-2015/

Basically, for VS 2015, this would be:

  • Open Programs and Features
  • Select "Microsoft Visual Studio 2015" and click "Change"
  • Press "Modify" to progress to Features options
  • Select "Windows and Web Development", then tick "ClickOnce Publishing Tools" for installation
  • Then "Next" and then "Update"
Community
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bhish
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    If you install visual studio 2015 Pro from an MSDN Subscription the installer doesn't ask you for options. It just installs basic c# etc so you need to do this to install anything else you want, including publishing tools. – Ryan Mann Nov 19 '15 at 22:15
  • Same case when Unity installs it; no options shown. – Tyronomo Feb 01 '16 at 13:01
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    This worked for me. I just ran the installer again, selected "Modify" and checked the box for "ClickOnce Publishing Tools". Thanks! – ChrisB Sep 23 '16 at 18:03
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I have a windows 7 and installing the ClickOnce Tools was not enough.

The signtool.exe appeared after also installing the sdk:

selection in vs 2015

S.Spieker
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97

If you do not care about sign your program when you publish, just right click your project then choose Properties --> Signing --> un-check Sign the ClickOnce manifest . I had the same issue when building my program on another machine which did not have ClickOne.

SolarLunix
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Hua Trung
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    Important to emphasize: need to make sure it's right-clicking the project and not the top Solution indicator. Selecting Properties on the Solution indicator gives me an `Object reference not set to an instance of an object` error. – vapcguy Jun 30 '16 at 13:42
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    Just as a side note, ClickOnce is there for security purposes so you should be very careful when disabling that. – maxshuty Aug 30 '16 at 15:32
  • was looking for this – Roi Apr 05 '17 at 13:06
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The SignTool is available as part of the Windows SDK (which comes with Visual Studio Community 2015). Make sure to select the "ClickOnce Publishing Tools" from the feature list during the installation of Visual Studio 2015 to get the SignTool.

Once Visual Studio is installed you can run the signtool command from the Visual Studio Command Prompt. By default (on Windows 10) the SignTool will be installed at C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86\signtool.exe.

ClickOnce Publishing Tools Installation:

enter image description here

SignTool Location:

enter image description here

Benny Code
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1.Just Disable signing from the properties of your project it will solve issue :)
2.The other method is to purchase the certificate for your product from Digicert or Comodo or any other you want. You can get some free certificates for One pc use.

Ahmad
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    How is this any different from Hua Trung's [answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/33982816/369450)? – Uyghur Lives Matter Feb 07 '17 at 20:27
  • i have just answered the question that is have tried once. He is also right if he gives the same answer – Ahmad Feb 12 '17 at 12:25
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    Ha ha ha! He submitted that answer in November 2015. You gave the same answer in February 2017 :-D – immutabl Dec 01 '17 at 15:27
  • This is still a horrible idea security wise – Jeremy Oct 12 '18 at 16:57
  • @Jeremy then add a sign in Certificate instead there are multiple free certificates for this purpose or create a dummy by yourself . If you have professional product then just purchase from any other like digicert or any other certification company – Ahmad Oct 26 '18 at 10:33
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No Worries! I have found the solution! I just installed https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/bg162891.aspx and it all worked fine :)

Catquatwa
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  • @ralphspoon I'm not sure. I have tried it on windows 10, so it should work on windows 8, but I don't know about windows 7 – Catquatwa Aug 27 '15 at 11:31
  • But for installing this 1.5 GB space is required. is this the right one? – Mohan Oct 28 '15 at 11:50
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Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 8.1

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=323507

Right click on Project, select properties and Un-Check the sign on option in teh project save and re-built.

This has fixed issue for me.

BHUVANESH MOHANKUMAR
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  • @cpburnz: This is specific with the SDK kit for 8.1 where I have provided the link to download the .exe file which solved my issue, where I accept Trung's answer step is same but the SDK is not required to install in his method and this is SDK specific. I tried lot many option and finally resolved this, so thought to share to help who ever face similar issue. The Trung's answer was 2015 and I got similar issue recently. – BHUVANESH MOHANKUMAR Feb 08 '17 at 05:32
  • this doesn't answer the question of `Can anyone help me find it or download it?` You are completely bypassing signing altogether. – highboi Feb 10 '17 at 22:04
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Here is a solution for Visual Studio 2017. The installer looks a littlebit different from the VS 2015 version and the name of the installation packages are different.

thmspl
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