Trusted root certificates that are required by Windows Server 2008 R2, by Windows 7, by Windows Server 2008, by Windows Vista, by Windows Server 2003, by Windows XP, and by Windows 2000

INTRODUCTION

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.

More Information

Necessary and trusted root certificates

The following certificates are necessary and trusted in Windows 7, in Windows Vista, in Windows Server 2008 R2, and in Windows Server 2008:

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:

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:

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 How to remove a root certificate from the Trusted Root Store

Properties

Article ID: 293781 - Last Review: Apr 18, 2017 - Revision: 5

Applies to

Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Enterprise N, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Home Premium N, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Professional N, Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Starter N, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Ultimate N, Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter without Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise without Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard without Hyper-V, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Business 64-bit Edition, Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit Edition, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition, Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit Edition, Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86), Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86), Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86), Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition

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