title: When should you protect a strong name key file with a password?
body: <p>In the visual studio project settings you can choose a strong name key file for signing the assembly. When creating a new one you can choose to protect it with a password. When should you do this? And when should you not?</p>
  
  <p>I am thinking that it could for example be not so smart to protect it with a password if the project is an open source project hosted on Codeplex or similar. Or should it still be protected? Will people be unable to download the source and compile it if the key file is protected? Or, how does this work exactly?</p>