Windows Certificate Management with Certutil and PowerShell

Managing digital certificates in Windows environments can be challenging, especially when command-line automation fails due to syntax issues, special characters, or escaping errors. This course provides a clear, text-based path to mastering certificate administration. You will move from understanding basic cryptographic concepts to writing robust scripts that handle complex passwords, PFX deployments, and automated validation without security vulnerabilities. What you will learn: Understand foundational certificate concepts, public key infrastructure, and certificate stores; Master the Certutil command-line tool for importing, exporting, and verifying PFX and CER files; Resolve command-line escaping issues, particularly handling double quotes and special characters in passwords; Apply PowerShell cmdlets and the certificate provider drive for modern, scriptable certificate management; Implement secure secret handling to avoid exposing sensitive passwords in automation scripts; Troubleshoot common certificate validation, chain-of-trust, and deployment errors systematically. The course begins with core terminology and the architectural basics of Windows certificate stores. You will then progress through practical command-line scenarios, scripting techniques, and troubleshooting strategies for real-world administrative tasks. This course is designed for junior system administrators, IT support professionals, and DevOps beginners, with no prior certificate management experience required. Start mastering Windows certificate automation and command-line troubleshooting today.