Certificate problem - Error Importing Key "object already exists" after Windows 7 upgrade

Question

I have about 60 .pfx files for all major assemblies for a project. They are unique files, but I use the same password for all.

After an upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 I get an Import Key File dialog requesting the password for them when I click Build in Visual Studio 2008.

This would have been fine, but after inserting the password I get an error dialog: Error Importing Key - Object Already Exists.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Solved it!

After the upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 the permissions of the folder containing certificates C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys had changed.

After changing the permissions granting full access the problem went away.

Let me know if this was helpful to anyone! :)

Answer 2

I didn't really want to start changing file permissions to fix this. But the answer about file permissions did push me in the right direction.

Instead of changing the file permissions I ran VS.NET as administrator, which also resolved the key import problem.