Moving a Certificate to From One Microsoft Certificate Store to Another

Did you place your certificates in the?Personal?store instead of the?Web Hosting?store? If you have less then 20 to 30 certificates, this will not be a problem. However, if you are managing 30 or more certificates you will need to move your certificates to the?Web Hosting?store, which was designed to scale to a greater number of certificates.

How to Move a Certificate

Use these instructions to move certificates from one Microsoft store to another.

  1. Open the MMC Console.

    1. Windows Server 2016

      1. In the Windows Start menu, type mmc.

      2. Right-click on mmc and then click Run as administrator.

    2. Windows Server 2012

      1. On the Windows Start screen, type mmc.

      2. Right-click on mmc.exe and then click Run as administrator.

  2. In the MMC Console, in the top menu, click File > Add/Remove Snap-in¡­.

    Add/Remove Snap-in...

  3. In the Add or Remove Snap-ins windows, in the Available snap-ins: section, select Certificates and then click Add >.

    Add/Remove Snap-ins

  4. In the Certificate snap-in window, select Computer account and then click Next.

    Certificate snap-in

  5. In the Select Computer window, select Local computer: (the computer this console is running on) and then click Finish.

    Certificate snap-in

  6. In the Add or Remove Snap-ins window, you should now see the Certificates (Local Computer) snap-in.

    Certificate snap-in

  7. Click OK

  8. In the MMC Console, in the console tree, expand?Certificates (Local Computer) > Personal, and select the?Certificates?folder.

    Certificate snap-in

  9. In the center pane, select (highlight) the certificate(s) that you want to move (or copy).

    Certificate snap-in

  10. Right-click on the highlighted certificate(s) and click Cut (or Copy).

  11. In the MMC Console, in the console tree, right-click on the Web Hosting folder and click Paste.

    Certificate snap-in

  12. The certificate(s) should now appear in the Web Hosting, Certificates folder (Web Hosting store).

    Certificate snap-in

For help with your certificate installation or troubleshooting, try our Windows SSL management tool.

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