PKI Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - v2.32, by Herong Yang
Microsoft Management Console (MMC)
This section describes the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which can be used to create a console to manage certificate stores on Windows systems.
From the Internet Explorer (IE) chapter, we learned that, IE stores trusted root CA certificates in certificate stores. You can use IE to view and manage those certificate stores.
But you can also manage those certificate stores using other tools, because certificate stores are installed as part of the Windows operating system.
The best tool on a Windows system to manage certificate stores is the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
Here is a brief introduction on MMC from wikipedia.org:
MMC snap-ins and consoles - The management console can host one or more modules which are Component Object Model components called snap-ins. Most of Microsoft's administration tools included with both Windows itself, and Windows Server System products are implemented as MMC "snap-ins". Third parties can also implement their own snap-ins using the MMC application programming interfaces published at MSDN. Snap-ins are registered in the [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT]\{CLSID} and [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MMC\Snapins] registry keys. A snap-in combined with MMC is called a console. It can be launch using mmc path\filename.msc.
Common snap-ins - The most prolific MMC is Computer Management, which appears in the Administrative Tools folder in the Control Panel. Computer Management is actually a collection of MMC snap-ins, including the Device Manager, Disk Defragmenter, Internet Information Services (if it's installed), Disk Management, Event Viewer, Local Users and Groups (except the home editions of Windows), Shared Folders, and other tools.
Other MMC snap-ins in common use include: Microsoft Exchange Server; Active Directory user and group, domain trust, and site snap-ins; Group Policy management; Services snap-in, for managing Windows services; Performance snap-in, for monitoring system performance and metrics; Event Viewer, for monitoring system and application events.
Based Windows documentation, we can create a MMC snap-in to manage certificate stores. See next section.
Table of Contents
Introduction of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)
Introduction of HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)
Using HTTPS with Google Chrome
Using HTTPS with Mozilla Firefox
HTTPS with IE (Internet Explorer)
Android and Server Certificate
►Windows Certificate Stores and Console
►Microsoft Management Console (MMC)
Creating Certificate Console as a MMC Snap-In
Exporting a List of Root CA Certificates
Viewing Certificate Properties and Purposes
Exporting a Root CA Certificate to a File
Deleting a Root CA Certificate
Importing a Root CA Certificate from a File
Disabling a Root CA Certificate
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and Server Certificate
macOS Certificate Stores and Keychain Access
Perl Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers
PHP Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers
Java Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers
.NET Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers
CAcert.org - Root CA Offering Free Certificates
PKI CA Administration - Issuing Certificates
Comodo Free Personal Certificate
Digital Signature - Microsoft Word
Digital Signature - OpenOffice.org 3