ClickOnce publish new version with updated certificate

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VS2008

VB

Visual-Studio

installer

I have an application that is distributed using ClickOnce. I sign it with a certificate purchased from Thawte and have published several versions of the application. The certificate has now expired and I need to publish another version with a program fix. I have a renewed certificate but after publishing a new version with it I get an error when my application tries to update. I do not use ClickOnce automatic updates but instead check for and perform the updates in code.

I've searched a bit for some help on this matter and have found a few forums that say I'm just out of luck and there isn't a fix...but they seem to be kind of old and I was hoping that with VS 2008 perhaps this has been fixed. Does anyone know how to get around this issue?

The error that I end up with is "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." When I try to perform the .CheckForDetailedUpdate in the code I use to update my app:

       Dim updateInfo As System.Deployment.Application.UpdateCheckInfo = Nothing
       'Check if application is network deployed
       If System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed Then
           'Application is network deployed
           Dim objAppDeploy As System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment = System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment
           'Check for updates and get update information
           Try
               updateInfo = objAppDeploy.CheckForDetailedUpdate()
           Catch ex As System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentDownloadException
               Return "Program updates for " & gblstrFormText & " cannot be downloaded at this time." & _
                      vbCrLf & "Please check your network connection and try again." & _
                      " If the problem persists, please contact support." & _
                      vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Error: " & _
                      ex.Message
           Catch ex As InvalidOperationException
               Return "This program cannot be updated. It is likely not a ClickOnce application." & _
                      vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Error: " & ex.Message
           Catch ex As Exception
              ' ***** THIS IS THE EXCEPTION THAT GETS HIT *******
               Return "This program cannot be updated. " & _
                      vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Error: " &

'...rest of the code is not relevant