More and more people are using digital certificates to identify themselves over the Internet. An effective and secure formula to verify your identity and carry out all types of queries and procedures online. How can we see the digital certificates installed in Windows 11? We explain this and other interesting things to you in the following paragraphs.
The most important thing you need to know about digital certificates is that, once installed on our devices, they are saved in a specific section of the operating system. To access them, it will be necessary to enter a key or password that only the user must know.
What is a digital certificate?
While waiting for technological evolution (such as the one that will come from quantum computing) to bring us more developed systems to certify the real identity of a person on the Internet, currently the most secure means is the digital certificate.
These certificates contain a series of identifying data that has been previously authenticated by an official body. In fact, in recent years, the use of these certificates has become widespread, especially in the public administration. Today this is the only completely secure method (as long as it is used correctly) to interact with public administrations.
There are many types of digital certificate. In Spain, the most used is that of the FNMT, which can be used for numerous procedures.
Where are digital certificates stored?
In Windows 11, as obvious as it may sound, digital certificates are saved in the certificate store or manager. If the browser we usually use is Edge, Internet Explorer or Chrome, they are saved in the Windows certificate store. This is also what most applications use. Only Firefox uses its own certificate store.
The most important characteristics of digital certificates are the following:
- They are files that identify both a natural person and a legal entity.
- They are issued by a certification authority.
- They can be installed in different locations: the browser, on a physical cryptographic card (for example, the Electronic DNI or DNIe), or on a cryptographic USB device.
Access digital certificates in Windows 11
The most direct way to access the Windows 11 certificate store is through the “Manage User Certificates” tool. We will easily find it just by typing its name in the Windows search bar. We can also do it by writing certmgr.msc.
The tool will show us a file that contains a series of folders (one for each certificate that we have installed) that we will only be able to access using our own key.
In addition to this method, it is also possible access our digital certificates installed in Windows 11 through the browser itself. There are two ways to do it: one that will work in almost all known browsers and another specific way only for Firefox:
In Google Chrome, Edge and other browsers
- To begin, we go to the main menu of the browser and select the option "Preferences".
- Then we go to the section "Privacy & Security".
- select "Security".
- On the new page that opens, we look for the option "Manage certificates". That's where we're going to find them.
In Firefox
- The first step is to go to the main menu and go to "Preferences".
- Then, in the sidebar, we click "Privacy & Security".
- Next, we access the section "Security".
- There we will find a button called "Certificates". You just have to click on it to open a new window with all the digital certificates installed on our computer.
How to install a digital certificate in Windows 11
The process of installing digital certificates in Windows 11 is relatively simple. When we import it from a portal such as, for example, the FNMT, we will receive it in .pfx format. All we have to do to start the process is double click on the file, which will start a certificate import wizard.
In the first window of the wizard you must choose whether the certificate should be installed only for one user (recommended) or for an entire computer, in case it is a computer shared with others. Then it will be necessary to verify that the certificate we are importing is the one we want to have.
Then you have to add the password and decide the final location of the certificate on our computer.
In case of wanting delete a certificate (something that only has to be done if we are completely sure), what we have to do is access it following the steps explained above and, with the right click of the mouse, choose the "Delete" option.
Finally, you have to remember that Using digital certificates is a totally secure identification method, as long as we ensure that it is not accessible to third parties. To avoid this, the best thing we can do is protect our equipment with an access PIN.