Error MSB4044 RemoveDisposableSigningCertificate

Unity Engine
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1

Hello.

I’ve been developing a game for a long time with builds uploaded to Microsoft with UWP. The VS project built from Unity has now problem. Now I’m getting this error with a new build with Visual Studio 2022 when generating the UWP generated build:

Error MSB4044 A value was not specified for the task “RemoveDisposableSigningCertificate” for the required “CertificateThumbprint” parameter. Math Classroom Challenge C:\Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio 2022CommunityMSBuild Microsoft Visual Studio 17.0AppxPackage Microsoft.AppXPackage.Targets 942

I’ve been looking for a solution, nothing that works. This happens with W11 last version with Unity 2023.3.56 and Unity 6.0.34.

Any hint of what could it be? Thank you.

2

Verified that it happens on a clean new UWP project with nothing but a cube. This is not related to Unity but to Visual Studio 2024 as it seems.

3

Even I am facing the same issue from Jan 20 2025. When we Associate App with Store this happens.
Microsoft has to fix this.

4

There are people complaining about this in the Visual Studio Forums:

https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/While-creating-package-facing-error-Rem/10830082?q=RemoveDisposableSigningCertificate

1 Like
5

I’ve posted a workaround for this issue here:
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/While-creating-package-facing-error-Rem/10830082?q=RemoveDisposableSigningCertificate

Brief summary:

  1. From a previous working project folder, copy the file “Package.StoreAssociation.xml” into your project root directory (same folder as Package.appxmanifest). I managed to find this on an old build machine. Check the link above for a copy of this file if you can’t find it.
  2. In Visual Studio, right click on your project in the Solution Explorer panel and select “Add / Existing Item…” and select “Package.StoreAssociation.xml” It should then appear just below “Package.appxmanifest” in the Solution Explorer. This makes the option to update your app reappear in “Create App Packages… / Select Distribution Method” as the first option: “Microsoft Store as APP NAME by PUBLISHER NAME”
  3. Next: Open your Package.appxmanifest and go to the “Packaging” tab and click “Choose Certificate… / Select From Store… / OK”
  4. Then “Project / Publish / Create App Packages…” should now succeed!

The generated package can now be uploaded to the Microsoft Store and passes Validation. However the Windows App Certification Kit doesn’t work anymore saying the package isn’t signed.