First published on TECHNET on Dec 12, 2008
The friendly name of a certificate can be helpful if multiple certificates with a similar subject exist in a certificate store.
One way to set the friendly name is through the certificate MMC SnapIn. Alternatively certutil.exe can be used in the following way:
- Open Notepad and past the following text into the editor
[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
[Properties]
11 = "{text}My Friendly Name"
- Save the file as friendlyname.inf
- Determine the serialnumber of the certificate where the friendly name should be changed.
- If the certificate exists in the user’s certificate store, run the following command at a command-line
certutil –repairstore –user my {SerialNumber} FriendlyName.inf
