In this case, the problem is a project "common properties" reference.
Inside of the project .csproj file is this innocuous little line:
<Import Project="..\build\CommonProperties.targets" />
Unfortunately, the file (CommonProperties.targets
) instructs VS to re-write the properties, but it does not provide any clear indication in the user interface that this is taking place.
The solution is to go into the CommonProperties.targets
file and delete the following lines:
<!-- delay sign the assembly if the PrivateKeyPath property is not specified -->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(PrivateKeyPath)' == '' And '$(PrivateKeyName)' == ''">
<AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>..\public_key.snk</AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
<DelaySign>true</DelaySign>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- sign the assembly using the specified key file containing both the private and public keys -->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(PrivateKeyPath)' != '' ">
<AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>$(PrivateKeyPath)</AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
<DelaySign>false</DelaySign>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- sign the assembly using the specified key container containing both the private and public keys -->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(PrivateKeyName)' != '' ">
<AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile></AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
<DelaySign>false</DelaySign>
</PropertyGroup>
Replace those lines with the following:
<PropertyGroup>
<DelaySign>false</DelaySign>
<SignAssembly>false</SignAssembly>
</PropertyGroup>