Enable and configure ClickOnce security settings in Visual Studio
You can enable and configure ClickOnce security settings in the Security page of the Project Designer. In this article, you learn how to enable security settings, configure security zones, and configure customized security zones.
Note
In ClickOnce for .NET Core and .NET 5 or later, this task is unsupported. For more information, see ClickOnce for .NET.
Enable ClickOnce security settings
Code access security for ClickOnce applications must be enabled in order to publish the application. This is done automatically when you publish an application using the Publish wizard.
In some cases, enabling code access security can impact performance when building or debugging your application; in these cases, you may wish to temporarily disable the security settings.
ClickOnce security settings can be enabled or disabled on the Security page of the Project Designer.
With a project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu, click Properties.
Click the Security tab.
Select the Enable ClickOnce Security Settings check box.
You can now customize the security settings for your application on the Security page.
Note
This check box is automatically selected each time the application is published with the Publish wizard.
To disable ClickOnce security settings
With a project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu, click Properties.
Click the Security tab.
Clear the Enable ClickOnce Security Settings check box.
Your application will be run with the full trust security settings; any settings on the Security page will be ignored.
Note
Each time the application is published with the Publish wizard, this check box will be selected; you must clear it again after each successful publish.
Set a security zone for a ClickOnce application
When setting code access security permissions for a ClickOnce application, you need to start with a base set of permissions on the Security page of the Project Designer.
In most cases, you can also choose the Internet zone which contains a limited set of permissions, or the Local Intranet zone which contains a greater set of permissions. If your application requires custom permissions, you can do so by choosing the Custom security zone.
To set a security zone
With a project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu click Properties.
Click the Security tab.
Select the Enable ClickOnce Security Settings check box.
Select the This is a partial trust application option button.
The controls in the ClickOnce security permissions section are enabled.
In the Zone your application will be installed from drop-down list, select a security zone.
Set custom permissions for a ClickOnce application
You can deploy a ClickOnce application that uses default permissions for the Internet or Local Intranet zones. Alternatively, you can create a custom zone for the specific permissions that the application needs. You can do this by customizing the security permissions on the Security page of the Project Designer.
To customize a permission
With a project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu, click Properties.
Click the Security tab.
Select the Enable ClickOnce Security Settings check box.
Select the This is a partial trust application option button.
The controls in the ClickOnce security permissions section are enabled.
From the Zone your application will be installed from drop-down list, click (Custom).
Click Edit Permissions XML.
The app.manifest file opens in the XML Editor.
Before the
</applicationRequestMinimum>element, add XML code for permissions that your application requires.Note
You can use the
ToXmlmethod of a permission set to generate the XML code for the application manifest. For example, to generate the XML for the EnvironmentPermission permission set, call the ToXml method.