Microsoft Root Certificate Authority 2011.cer
Root certificates themselves are not logged for usage. Instead, reliance on this root is inferred from issued end-entity certificates. Enterprises can monitor Event ID 3 (System) in CAPI2 logs for certificate chain validation events.
To verify the certificate exists, use PowerShell:
Get-ChildItem -Path Cert:\LocalMachine\Root | Where-Object $_.Subject -like "*Microsoft Root Certificate Authority 2011*"
The .cer extension typically indicates one of two formats: microsoft root certificate authority 2011.cer
| Format | Detection | Typical use |
|--------|-----------|--------------|
| DER (binary) | Starts with 30 82 (ASN.1 sequence) | Linux, Java, manual import |
| Base-64 (PEM) | Begins with -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- | Email, Apache, text-friendly |
Verification command (Windows):
certutil -dump "microsoft root certificate authority 2011.cer"
Verification command (Linux/OpenSSL):
openssl x509 -in "microsoft root certificate authority 2011.cer" -text -noout
You do not usually need to manually download this file. It comes pre-installed with Windows. Here is how to locate it. Root certificates themselves are not logged for usage
Microsoft Root Certificate Authority 2011 is a self-signed root certificate used by Microsoft to sign code and drivers for modern Windows operating systems. It was created to replace the aging original Microsoft Root Certificate, ensuring that Windows can continue to validate Microsoft-signed software (like Windows Updates and Driver Packages) well into the future without interruption due to certificate expiration.