How to protect a signing key?

[rage31]

I have a need to verify the integrity of a settings file. The file is an xml document. I understand you can use readily-available functions as discussed in this stackoverflow post. I am having trouble understanding how to protect the signing key however. If I sign an xml file to act as an integrity check on it's contents the user can easily disassemble my executable and get the key and/or the way the key is generated. What methods are available for me to easily protect the key? Key containers seem to be one option but I don't see how they protect the key and/or the method used to generate said key.Thank you!