Note: This article was originally published in 2013. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current Windows Servers documentation for the latest information.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn manage the certificate store on your local machine using the command prompt or powershell. Windows Server is a group of operating systems designed by Microsoft to handle enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Windows Server installed
  • Administrator access
  • Remote Desktop or direct console access

How to: Manage the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Certificate “Junior Certificate”) Store on your local machine using the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_Prompt “Command Prompt”) or (http://www.microsoft.com/powershell “Windows PowerShell”)

It seems that as of late I am playing a lot with certificates in order to authenticate traffic across the network. Some of the most useful shell commands I have found are listed below, hopefully they’ll help you manage your certificate store when using the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface “User interface”) is not an easy option: List all the certificates in the store:

certutil -store | more (list cert store)

(or)

get-item Cert:LocalMachineMy*

  Delete a particular certificate from the store:

certutil -delstore (Index#)

(or)

remove-item Cert:LocalMachineMy (thumbprint#)

   

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Summary

You’ve successfully learned manage the certificate store on your local machine using the command prompt or powershell. If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your Windows Servers environment is properly configured.