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When installing a certificate on Windows, you are given two choices:

Store Location Current User or Local Machine

If I click Next, I can choose to allow the Certificate Import Wizard to figure out where to put it for me, but does this mean it cancels my Current User/Local Machine choice, and will install it as a Local Machine certificate instead?

Automatically select the certificate store based on the type of certificate

And it does not tell me which certificate store the wizard selected:

Certificate Import Wizard confirmation

If I open Certificate Manager, I am able to see Certificates installed for my Local Machine:

certlm - Certificates - Local Computer

However, I want to view the certificates for the Current User, NOT the Local Machine. I believe some bad certificates have been installed for my current user that are preventing me from accessing the internet on Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other browsers, but I can't figure out how to view Current User certificates to delete them. Firefox is the only browser that works because it manages its own certificates.

Does anyone know even the registry key of HKEY_CURRENT_USER certificates or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE certificates (assuming the local machine registry key is similar to the current user registry key enough to find the former).

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    They should be in "Personal" under the certificate manager tree I think.
    – Pylsa
    Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 21:53
  • Hmm. That might be it. I'm not seeing the certificate I expected to see. Let me try installing the certificate as Current User.
    – NobleUplift
    Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 21:58
  • @BloodPhilia I don't think that's it. I selected Current User and then told the wizard to automatically determine where to install the certificate, and I can't find it anywhere in the Certificate Manager now.
    – NobleUplift
    Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 22:03

1 Answer 1

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That's because you have opened the Certificate Manager for the local machine - certlm.msc.

If instead, you open the Certificate Manager for the user - certmgr.msc you should see your certificates. On Windows 10 you can type user certificates in the Start menu to open the same console.

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    Thank you!!! Wow, you can tell they're both using the exact same code but pulling data from different locations. Seems like it would have been easier to add a switch into both of the apps themselves. You called it though, I was just typing "Certificate Manager" in Start Menu :) Testing now.
    – NobleUplift
    Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 22:05
  • Thank you!!! I found the bad certificate in my Current User certificates, deleted it, and correctly installed the right certificate in "Intermediate Certification Authorities" for my Local Machine. I can use Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge again :D The first time anyone's been happy about being able to use IE.
    – NobleUplift
    Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 22:10

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