Home Library Learn Downloads Support Community
Sign in | United States - English | |
3 out of 14 rated this helpful - Rate this topic

Certificate Manager Tool (Certmgr.exe)

.NET Framework 3.5

Updated: May 2010

The Certificate Manager tool manages certificates, certificate trust lists (CTLs), and certificate revocation lists (CRLs).

NoteNote:

   The Certificate Manager tool (Certmgr.exe) is a command-line utility, whereas Certificates (Certmgr.msc) is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. Because Certmgr.msc is usually found in the Windows System directory, entering certmgr at the command line may load the Certificates MMC snap-in even if you have opened the Visual Studio Command Prompt. This occurs because the path to the snap-in precedes the path to the Certificate Manager tool in the PATH environment variable. If you encounter this problem, you can execute Certmgr.exe commands by specifying the path to the executable.

Copy 
certmgr [/add | /del | /put] [options]
[/s[/r registryLocation]] [sourceStorename]
[/s[/r registryLocation]] [destinationStorename]

Argument

Description

sourceStorename

The input certificate store as the type StoreFile, or the type system store.

destinationStorename

The output certificate store or file.

Option

Description

/add

Adds certificates, CTLs, and CRLs to a certificate store.

/all

Adds all entries when used with /add. Deletes all entries when used with /del. Displays all entries when used without the /add or /delete options. The /all option cannot be used with /put.

/c

Adds certificates when used with /add. Deletes certificates when used with /del. Saves certificates when used with /put. Displays certificates when used without the /add, /delete, or /put options.

/CRL

Adds or deletes CRLs. Displays CRLs when used without the /add, /delete, or /put options.

/CTL

Adds or deletes CTLs. Displays CTLs when used without the /add, /delete, or /put options.

/delete

Deletes certificates, CTLs, and CRLs from a specified certificate store.

/e encodingType

Specifies the certificate encoding type.

/f dwFlags

Specifies the store open flag. This is the dwFlags parameter passed to CertOpenStore. The default value is CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER. This option is considered only if the /y option is used.

/h[elp]

Displays command syntax and options for the tool.

/n commonName String

Specifies the common name of the certificate to add, delete, or save. This option can only be used with certificates; it cannot be used with CTLs or CRLs.

/put

Saves an X.509 certificate, CTL, or CRL from a certificate store to a file. The file will be saved in X.509 format. The /7 option can be used with the /put option to save the file in PKCS #7 format. The /put option must be followed by either /c, /CTL, or /CRL. The /all option cannot be used with /put.

/r registry location

Identifies the registry location of the system store. This option is considered only if you specify the /s option. Registry location must be one of the following:

  • currentUser indicates that the certificate store is under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key. This is the default

  • localMachine indicates that the certificate store is under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.

/s

Indicates that the certificate store is a system store. If you do not specify this option, the store is a StoreFile.

/sha1 sha1Hash

Specifies the SHA1 hash of the certificate, CTL, or CRL to add, delete, or save.

/v

Specifies verbose mode; displays detailed information about certificates, CTLs, and CRLs. This option cannot be used with the /add, /delete, or /put options.

/y storeProviderType

Specifies the store provider type.

/7

Saves the destination store as a PKCS#7 object.

/?

Displays command syntax and options for the tool.

Certmgr.exe performs the following basic functions:

  • Displays certificates, CTLs, and CRLs to the console.

  • Adds certificates, CTLs, and CRLs to a certificate store.

  • Deletes certificates, CTLs, and CRLs from a certificate store.

  • Saves an X.509 certificate, CTL, or CRL from a certificate store to a file.

Certmgr.exe works with two types of certificate stores: StoreFile and system store. It is not necessary to specify the type of certificate store; Certmgr.exe can identify the store type and perform the appropriate operations.

Running Certmgr.exe without specifying any options launches the certmgr.msc snap-in, which has a GUI that helps with the certificate management tasks that are also available from the command line. The GUI provides an import wizard, which copies certificates, CTLs, and CRLs from your disk to a certificate store.

For more information about certificates, see the About CryptoAPI section of the Microsoft Platform SDK documentation.

The following command displays a default system store called my with verbose output.

Copy 
certmgr /v /s my

The following command adds all the certificates in a file called myFile.ext to a new file called newFile.ext.

Copy 
certmgr /add /all /c myFile.ext newFile.ext

The following command moves a certificate with the common name myCert in the my system store to a file called newCert.cer.

Copy 
certmgr /add /c /n myCert /s my newCert.cer

The following command deletes all CTLs in the my system store and saves the resulting store to a file called newStore.str.

Copy 
certmgr /del /all /ctl /s my newStore.str

The following command puts a certificate in the my system storein the file newFile. You will be prompted to enter the certificate number from my to put in newFile.

Copy 
certmgr /put /c /s my newFile

Date

History

Reason

May 2010

Differentiated MMC snap-in from command-line utility.

Customer feedback.

Did you find this helpful?
(1500 characters remaining)
Community Content Add
Annotations FAQ
re: Confusing

It's a bit confusing and does leave it open to interpretation if you don't already know something about certificate storage.

My interpretation is you can either deal with an explicit file, where that file is a type of container for certificates, or deal indirectly with the a container handled by the system, which is still ultimately either a file or the registry, but it is entirely handled by the system and we do not need to know or care about the location of it nor anything else about how to deal with it.

The information is written in a way that assumes the reader already knows something about certificate storage and is simply looking for a way to deal with storage without having to write code to do it themselves. This is logical since most people would likely arrive at this page -after- knowing something about certificates and are looking for a ready-made module created to deal with it.

It would probably be good to have links to information describing what a container (StoreFile / system store) actually are for those that do not already know.

History
confusing
One of the most confusing explanation pages i've ever seen, and that's saying a lot on MSDN. For example:

"

The input certificate store as the type StoreFile, or the type system store.

"


does that look like reasonable human English grammar to anyone?

History