Some Notes on the Machines

Sometimes you need an SSL cert, but you don’t have a request generator. This works very well:

csrgenerator.com

Just grab the latest code here:

https://github.com/PKISharp/win-acme/releases/latest

unpack it into a folder you will keep (I used “E:\Let’s Encrypt”), and run letsencrypt.exe in the folder. The multi-site (SAN) mode works only if IIS is set up in certain ways; but the manual mode for a single site is simple and easy, and it sets up a scheduled task in Windows for the needed automatic updates.

Also recently discovered this, have not tested yet but it can come by Chocolatey, which means automatic updates are easy:

https://certifytheweb.com/

From the excellent Brigg Bush. Do all of these in Powershell:

New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -Force
New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' -Force
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -name 'Enabled' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' -name 'Enabled' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'

Sometimes, when software won’t install, especially something like ShadowProtect SPX which includes a driver, it is because of corruption of one or more internal Windows certificates. A method recommended to some extent in a few Microsoft resources:

certutil.exe -generateSSTFromWU roots.sst
Import-Certificate -FilePath .\roots.sst -CertStoreLocation 'Cert:\LocalMachine\Root' -Verbose

This does not always work. The only thorough method currently known to this writer, is to download this:

http://media.kaspersky.com/utilities/CorporateUtilities/rootsupd.zip

which contains a binary called “rootsupd.exe”. It will unpack itself if one runs it in administrative CMD, with syntax like this:

rootsupd.exe /c /t:C:\rootsupd

It will create the folder C:\rootsupd. Then go into C:\rootsupd, and do these (administrative CMD, not Powershell for some reason!):

updroots.exe authroots.sst
updroots.exe -d delroots.sst
updroots.exe roots.sst
updroots.exe updroots.sst

rootsupd.exe was, according to Google, available by download from Microsoft, but is not at this writing.

One does not have to reboot the system after doing the above, so far it just works.

Remote Web Workplace. Certificates are verified AOK, and yet at the point of RDP, you receive a popup reading “Your computer can’t connect to the remote computer because no certificate was configured to use at the Remote Desktop Gateway server. Contact your network administrator for assistance.”

To fix this, you’ll need the Remote Desktop Gateway Manager. If you have it, it’s in Start, Administrative Tools, Remote Desktop Services. If you don’t have it, install it:

dism /online /Enable-Feature:Gateway-UI

Then:

1. Open the RDGM.
2. Right-click the server object, open properties.
3. Open the SSL Certificate tab.
4. Click Import Certificate.
5. Choose the correct certificate — it’s the Exchange list, if this is SBS — and click OK.

From the excellent Matt Quick:

http://www.netscantools.com/ssl-certificate-scanner-standalone.html

Here’s how to replace a self-signed Exchange certificate in the Exchange Shell.

First get the list with details:

Get-ExchangeCertificate | fl

You’ll see all of the certs, with expiration dates (“NotAfter”) and thumbprints. For each one that you need to replace, do this:

Get-ExchangeCertificate -thumbprint <thumbprintcontents> | New-ExchangeCertificate

Then say Yes.

Rather helpful:

http://titlerequired.com/2011/12/07/quick-fix-sbs-2008-sites-self-signed-certificate-expired/

First copy the cert from the server to a file. Log into the server as administrator, and in CMD:

certutil -ca.cert ca_name.cer

Then copy ca_name.cer onto the desktop of the client PC, double-click on it, click “Install Certificate…” on the General tab, click “Place all certificates in the following store”, click “Browse…”, click “Trusted Root Certification Authorities, and click OK. Click Next and Finish.

Several certificate issues involving Outlook 2007/2010 and SBS 2008/2011 are covered here:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2010/01/05/troubleshooting-certificate-mismatch-warnings-in-outlook-2007-clients-on-small-business-server-2008.aspx