As part of a public key infrastructure (PKI) trust
management procedure, some administrators may decide to remove trusted root
certificates from a Windows-based domain, a Windows-based server, or a Windows-based client. However, the root
certificates that are listed in the "More Information" section in this article
are required for the operating system to operate correctly. Because removal of
the following certificates may limit functionality of the operating system or
may cause the computer to fail, you should not remove them.
Necessary and trusted root certificates
The follow certificates are necessary and trusted in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008:
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| Issued to | Issued by | Serial number | Expiration date | Intended purposes | Friendly name | Status |
| Microsoft Root Authority | Microsoft Root Authority | 00c1008b3c3c8811d13ef663ecdf40 | 12/31/2020 | All | Microsoft Root Authority | R |
| Thawte Timestamping CA | Thawte Timestamping CA | 00 | 12/31/2020 | Time Stamping | Thawte Timestamping CA | R |
| Microsoft Root Certificate Authority | Microsoft Root Certificate Authority | 79ad16a14aa0a5ad4c7358f407132e65 | 5/9/2021 | All | Microsoft Root Certificate Authority | R |
The follow certificates are necessary and trusted in Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003:
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| Issued to | Issued by | Serial number | Expiration date | Intended purposes | Friendly name | Status |
| Copyright (c) 1997 Microsoft Corp. | Copyright (c) 1997 Microsoft Corp. | 01 | 12/30/1999 | Time Stamping | Microsoft Timestamp Root | R |
| Microsoft Authenticode(tm) Root Authority | Microsoft Authenticode(tm) Root Authority | 01 | 12/31/1999 | Secure E-mail, Code Signing | Microsoft Authenticode(tm) Root | R |
| Microsoft Root Authority | Microsoft Root Authority | 00c1008b3c3c8811d13ef663ecdf40 | 12/31/2020 | All | Microsoft Root Authority | R |
| NO LIABILITY ACCEPTED, (c)97 VeriSign, Inc. | NO LIABILITY ACCEPTED, (c)97 VeriSign, Inc. | 4a19d2388c82591ca55d735f155ddca3 | 1/7/2004 | Time Stamping | VeriSign Time Stamping CA | R |
| VeriSign Commercial Software Publishers CA | VeriSign Commercial Software Publishers CA | 03c78f37db9228df3cbb1aad82fa6710 | 1/7/2004 | Secure E-mail, Code Signing | VeriSign Commercial Software Publishers CA | R |
| Thawte Timestamping CA | Thawte Timestamping CA | 00 | 12/31/2020 | Time Stamping | Thawte Timestamping CA | R |
| Microsoft Root Certificate Authority | Microsoft Root Certificate Authority | 79ad16a14aa0a5ad4c7358f407132e65 | 5/9/2021 | All | Microsoft Root Certificate Authority | R |
The follow certificates are necessary and trusted in Microsoft Windows 2000:
Collapse this tableExpand this table
| Issued to | Issued by | Serial number | Expiration date | Intended purposes | Friendly name | Status |
| Copyright (c) 1997 Microsoft Corp. | Copyright (c) 1997 Microsoft Corp. | 01 | 12/30/1999 | Time Stamping | Microsoft Timestamp Root | R |
| Microsoft Authenticode(tm) Root Authority | Microsoft Authenticode(tm) Root Authority | 01 | 12/31/1999 | Secure E-mail, Code Signing | Microsoft Authenticode(tm) Root | R |
| Microsoft Root Authority | Microsoft Root Authority | 00c1008b3c3c8811d13ef663ecdf40 | 12/31/2020 | All | Microsoft Root Authority | R |
| NO LIABILITY ACCEPTED, (c)97 VeriSign, Inc. | NO LIABILITY ACCEPTED, (c)97 VeriSign, Inc. | 4a19d2388c82591ca55d735f155ddca3 | 1/7/2004 | Time Stamping | VeriSign Time Stamping CA | R |
| VeriSign Commercial Software Publishers CA | VeriSign Commercial Software Publishers CA | 03c78f37db9228df3cbb1aad82fa6710 | 1/7/2004 | Secure E-mail, Code Signing | VeriSign Commercial Software Publishers CA | R |
| Thawte Timestamping CA | Thawte Timestamping CA | 00 | 12/31/2020 | Time Stamping | Thawte Timestamping CA | R |
Some certificates that are listed in the previous tables have expired. However, these certificates are
necessary for backward compatibility. Even if there is an expired trusted root
certificate, anything that was signed by using that certificate
before the expiration date requires that the trusted root certificate be
validated. As long as expired certificates are not revoked, they can be used to
validate anything that was signed before their
expiration.
For more information about how to remove root certificates from the
store, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
293819
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293819/
)
How to remove a root certificate from the Trusted Root Store
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