Create a test certificate windows

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These companies have root certificates that are installed as part of the base operating system and will be recognized on all Windows platforms. Alternatively, you can create your own root and server certificates for testing purposes on your own local network.

The OpenSSL toolkit can be used to create self-signed test certificates for server applications, as well as generate certificate signing requests CSRs to obtain certificates from Certificate Authorities like DigiCert. This article outlines the steps for creating a test certificate using OpenSSL as an alternative to the MakeCert utility. You will need to install OpenSSL on your development system to use the commands in this article.

Download OpenSSL. In this article, first we'll create a self-signed root certificate to be installed into the Trusted Root certificate store. Then we'll use that certificate to sign a server certificate created for "localhost", the hostname you can use for testing local connections on your development system. The first step to create your test certificate using OpenSSL is to create a configuration file. After you've installed OpenSSL, create a new, empty folder and create a file named localhost.

Copy all of the following text into the file and save it. The country code should always be the ISO standard two-letter code e. After you have created the OpenSSL configuration file, the next step is to create a self-signed root certificate that will be used to sign your localhost test certificate. Open a command prompt, change the directory to your folder with the configuration file and generate the private key for the certificate:. This will create a file named testCA.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. All rights reserved. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. OS Radar. By Mel K. January 26, How to Create Self-signed Certificate on Windows.

In Windows, there are 2 different approaches to create a self-signed certificate. Prerequisite Before jumping to the certificate generation, you need to make sure that your PowerShell is v5. Type the following command and press Enter: - Advertisement -.