Would you like to learn how to use a group policy to install a Root certificate to all computers in the domain? In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a group policy to add a root certificate to all computers in the domain.
• Windows 2012 R2
• Windows 2016
• Windows 2019
• Windows 10
• Windows 7
Hardware List:
The following section presents the list of equipment used to create this tutorial.
Every piece of hardware listed above can be found at Amazon website.
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Tutorial – Creating GPO to add a Root certificate
On the domain controller, open the group policy management tool.
Create a new group policy.
Enter a name for the new group policy.
In our example, the new GPO was named: MY-GPO.
On the Group Policy Management screen, expand the folder named Group Policy Objects.
Right-click your new Group Policy Object and select the Edit option.
On the group policy editor screen, expand the Computer configuration folder and locate the following item.
Right-click on Trusted Root Certification Authorities and select the option to import a certificate.
On the certificate importation screen, click on the Next button.
Select the Root certificate.
Configure the following certificate directory:
• Trusted Root Certification Authorities
Click on the Finish button.
In our example, a Root certificate named MYROOT will be distributed to all the domain computers.
To save the group policy configuration, you need to close the Group Policy editor.
Congratulations! You have finished the GPO creation.
Tutorial – Applying the GPO to install the Root certificate
On the Group policy management screen, you need to right-click the Organizational Unit desired and select the option to link an existent GPO.
In our example, we are going to link the group policy named MY-GPO to the root of the domain.
After applying the GPO you need to wait for 10 or 20 minutes.
During this time the GPO will be replicated to other domain controllers.
To test the configuration, open the Root certificate file on a remote computer.
Here is the Root certificate content, before our configuration.
Here is the Root certificate content, after our configuration.
In our example, a Root certificate was imported to all domain computers.
