diff --git a/ATxCommon/Serializables/ServiceStatus.cs b/ATxCommon/Serializables/ServiceStatus.cs
index 7f7a97f1c21cae8b23a50e621cafaecb527a4b69..823f76740b0f88f007c6036fd9111e214b42de84 100644
--- a/ATxCommon/Serializables/ServiceStatus.cs
+++ b/ATxCommon/Serializables/ServiceStatus.cs
@@ -65,7 +65,10 @@ namespace ATxCommon.Serializables
             try {
                 var xs = new XmlSerializer(GetType());
                 var writer = File.CreateText(_storageFile);
-                xs.Serialize(writer, this);
+                // set the namespace to empty as it only makes the XML less human-readable:
+                var xns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
+                xns.Add(string.Empty, string.Empty);
+                xs.Serialize(writer, this, xns);
                 writer.Flush();
                 writer.Close();
             }