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How to Create a Self-Signed Certificate in Windows 10
Use a command-line tool or third-party software
4 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Key notes
Adding an SSL certificate to your website is a straightforward process. You can either purchase a third-party SSL certificate and renew it on a yearly basis or use an open-source SSL certificate and create a corn job to renew it every month.
However, for development and testing, you can explore the possibility of creating a self-signed SSL certificate in Windows.
Creating a self-signed certificate is an excellent alternative to purchasing and renewing a yearly certification for testing purposes. You can make use of OpenSSL to generate a self-signed certificate for this purpose.
In this article, we explore how to create a self-signed certificate in Windows 10. The later part of the article also explores how to deploy the self-signed certificate to client machines.
Quick Tip:
Although you can save some money if you create a self-signed certificate, it may lead to a permanent block of your website for some users. This is caused by the certificate error message and in most cases cannot be undone.
Besides that, the process is time-consuming and really not worth your time which also has a certain cost. We strongly recommend using a 3rd party SSL service provider.
GoDaddy SSL Certificates
How can I generate a self-signed certificate in Windows 10?
1. Use OpenSSL to create a self-signed certificate
C: Test>c:opensslbinopenssl ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f privkey.pem
Once you have the public/private key generated, follow the next set of steps to create a self-signed certificate file on a Windows system.
If you would rather usePowerShellto create a self-signed certificate, follow the next set of steps instead.
2. Generate a Self-Signed Certificate on Windows using PowerShell
- Press theWindowskey, and typePowershellin the search box. Right-click on thePowerShellapp and selectRun as Administrator.
2.Run the New-SelfsignedCertificate command, as shown below:$cert = New-SelfSignedCertificate -certstorelocation cert:localmachinemy -dnsname testcert.windowsreport.com
- This will add the certificate to the locater store on your PC. Replacetestcert.windowsreport.comwith your domain name in the above command.
4.Next, create a password for your export file:$pwd = ConvertTo-SecureString -String ‘password!’ -Force -AsPlainText
- ReplacePasswordwith your own password.
6.Enter the following command to export the self-signed certificate:$path = ‘cert:localMachinemy’ + $cert.thumbprint Export-PfxCertificate -cert $path -FilePath c:tempcert.pfx -Password $pwd
-
In the above command replacec:tempwith the directory where you want to export the file.
-
You can import the exported file and deploy it for your project.
Another great option to generate a self-signed certificate on Windows 10 is to use a command-line tool such as Powershell.
With it, you don’t need to download any third-party software. You just need to input the appropriate command line in Powershell, and the tool will do the job for you.
How to add my self-signed certificate into the curls ca file on Windows 10?
Creating a self-signed certificate using OpenSSL can be done using theCommand PromptorPowerShell. Being able to create your self-signed certificate allows you to create a temporary certificate for in-development projects that require an SSL certificate.
We hope you managed to generate a self-signed certificate on your Windows 10 PC. Let us know in the comments section which method you prefer to use.
More about the topics:certificate error,Windows 10 Guides
Tashreef Shareef
Tashreef Shareef is a software developer turned tech writer. He discovered his interest in technology after reading a tech magazine accidentally. Now he writes about everything tech from Windows to iOS and streaming services to IoT at WindowsReport.
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