Request a certificate

Open an MMC console that contains Certificates.
In the console tree, click a Certificates instance (such as Certificates - Current User or Certificates Computer Name).
Do one of the following:
- If you are in Logical Certificate Stores view mode, click Personal.
- If you are in Certificate Purpose view mode, click the appropriate certificate purpose mode.
On the Action menu, point to All Tasks, and then click Request New Certificate to start the Certificate Request wizard.
In the Certificate Request wizard, select the following information:
- The type of certificate you want to request.
- (Optional if you have selected Advanced Options) The cryptographic service provider (CSP) you are using.
- (Optional - if you have selected Advanced Options) You can choose to enable strong private key protection. Enabling strong private key protection will ensure that you are prompted for a password every time the private key is used. This is useful if you want to make sure that the private key is not used without your knowledge.
- (Optional if you have selected Advanced Options) If you have more than one certification authority (CA) available, the name of the certification authority that will issue the certificate.
- A friendly name for your new certificate.
After the Certificate Request wizard has successfully finished, click Install Certificate.

note Note

If you have not already created an MMC console that contains Certificates, see Related Topics.
You can use this procedure to request certificates from an enterprise certification authority only. To request certificates from a stand-alone certification authority, you need to request certificates via Web pages. A Windows 2000 certification authority has its Web pages located at http:\\servername\certsrv, where servername is the name of Windows 2000 server hosting the certification authority.
In order to request a Digital Signature Standard (DSS) certificate from an enterprise CA, you must select the User Signature Only certificate template in the Certificate Request wizard.