Visual Studio SignTool.exe Not Found

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"

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


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.


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:

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SignTool Location:

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