In Visual Studio, using Windows Azure Storage, where does "Remember Account Key" get saved?

Question

Recently I reformatted my PC, which previously had Visual Studio installed on it.

In Visual Studio, under Server Explorer -> Windows Azure Storage, before reformatting, I had a storage account configured for one of my hosted services in Azure. When I configured it, the "Remember My Account Key" was checked.

After reformatting, this account was gone, as expected. However, when I went to reconfigure the account, I noticed that it automatically populated the "Account Key" field with the valid key.

How does Visual Studio remember this option?

Answer 1

From what I can see, your subscription information is saved in an XML file located on your hard drive:

C:\Users\\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Settings\Windows Azure Connections.xml

If you restored this file, it would have everything it needs to connect to Azure on your behalf and get the list of storage accounts directly. Once it has the thumbprint information associated with the subscription ID, it connects to the management portal directly using the Management API.