A common type of credential is the X.509 certificate. When creating secureservices or clients, you can specify a certificate be used as the clientor service credential by using methods such as the SetCertificate method.The method requires various parameters, such as the store where the certificateis stored and a value to use when searching for the certificate. The followingprocedure demonstrates how to examine the stores on a computer to find anappropriate certificate. For an example of finding the certificate thumbprint,see How to: Retrieve the Thumbprint of a Certificate.
To view certificates in the MMC snap-in
Open a Command Prompt window.
Type mmc and press the ENTER key. Note that to view certificates in the localmachine store, you must be in the Administrator role.
On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap In.
Click Add.
In the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, select Certificates.
Click Add.
In the Certificates snap-in dialog box, select Computer account and click Next.Optionally, you can select My User account or Service account. If you are notan administrator of the computer, you can manage certificates only for your useraccount.
In the Select Computer dialog box, click Finish.
In the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, click Close.
On the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box, click OK.
In the Console Root window, click Certificates (Local Computer) to view thecertificate stores for the computer.
Optional. To view certificates for your account, repeat steps 3 to 6. In step 7,instead of selecting Computer account, click My User account and repeat steps 8to 10.
Optional. On the File menu, click Save or Save As. Save the console file forlater reuse.
Viewing Certificates with Internet Explorer
You can also view, export, import, and delete certificates by using InternetExplorer.
To view certificates with Internet Explorer, open Internet Explorer, click on Tools, then select Internet Options to display the Internet Options dialog box.
Click the Content tab.
Under Certificates, click Certificates.
To view details of any certificate
