How to add certificates to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store for a local computer

Summary

This article discusses how to add certificates to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store for a local computer.

Synopsis

This article discusses how to add certificates to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store for a local computer.

Further detail may be found in the related Microsoft documentation.

Note: Administrators is the minimum group membership required to complete this procedure.

Discussion

Use these steps to add certificates to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store for a local computer.

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

1. Click Start, click Start Search, type mmc, and then press ENTER.


2. On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.


3. Under Available snap-ins, click Certificates,and then click Add. 


4. Under This snap-in will always manage certificates for, click Computer account, and then click Next.


5. Click Local computer, and click Finish.


6. If you have no more snap-ins to add to the console, click OK.


7. In the console tree, double-click Certificates.


8. Right-click the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store - select All Tasks.


9. Click Import to import the certificates and follow the steps in the Certificate Import Wizard.

Determining if you import certificates into the Personal store or the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store is based on if you intend the certificate for you or if it is a root certification authority (CA) certificate. There are other Certificate stores you can use when selecting the button 'Browse'.

To import a certificate with the Certificate Import Wizard.

10. Type the file name containing the certificate to be imported or click Browse and navigate to the file.

11. If it is a Personal Information Exchange - PKCS #12 file, do the following:
- Type the password used to encrypt the private key.
- (Optional) If you want to be able to use strong private key protection, select the Enable strong private key protection check box.
- (Optional) If you want to back up or transport your keys at a later time, select the Mark key as exportable check box.

12. Do one of the following:
- If the certificate should be automatically placed in a certificate store based on the type of certificate, click Automatically select the certificate store based on the type of certificate.
- If you want to specify where the certificate is stored, select Place all certificates in the following store, click Browse, and choose the certificate store to use.

How to add certificates to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store for a local computer