Recently, i was unable to publish my ClickOnce application because my
Thawte Code Signing certificate had expired.   I had renewed it, but
had not yet gotten around to changing it in the project/properties/
signing section of visual studio.   I then took the new PVK and SPC
files provided by Thawte (with my renewal) and generated a PFX file
using the utility PVK2PFX supplied by VS2005.   I then changed updated
my propject/properties/signing section in VS2005 and used the new PFX
file - which had all the correct info on it.  I then did a publish!

Now, existing installs of this ClickOnce application cannot start the
application due to a ClickOnce error.   The error builds down to "The
deployment identity does not match the subscription."   In googling
this error i have found it explained on Microsoft's website as a known
problem.   I am now forced to have 1500 users uninstall / reinstall
the application to move forward... just because my code signing cert
expired.

Does this sound right?

This would mean that Microsoft failed to notice that the lifespan of a
code signing certificate would define the maximum lifespan of a
ClickOnce application.   That's disasterous.

Can anyone shed more light on this?  Did i do something wrong when i
renewed my certificate with Thawte?  How can i avoid this in the
future when my next one expires?

PLEASE HELP