What is Certificate provider in Windows PowerShell?

The Certificate provider is part of the Windows PowerShell that exposes certificate information on Windows system as a file system called "Cert:" drive. This allows you to navigate the certificate information using file system standard cmdlets.

For example, "dir Cert:" cmdlet displays items in the certificate root directory. It actually returns certificate store locations.

The "Cert:" drive has the following three levels:

• Store locations - High-level containers that group the certificates for the current user and for all users. Each system has a CurrentUser and LocalMachine (all users) store location.
• Certificates stores - Physical stores in which certificates are saved and managed.
• X.509 certificates - Individual X.509 certificates.

Like files and directories in a file system, you can use path names to refer any certificate store or certificate. For example, the following command displays first 5 certificates from the "AuthRoot" store:

PS C:\fyicenter> dir Cert:\CurrentUser\AuthRoot | Select-Object -First 5

    Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Security\Certificate::CurrentUser\AuthRoot

Thumbprint                                Subject
----------                                -------
D8C5388AB7301B1B6ED47AE645253A6F9F1A2761  CN=SwissSign Gold CA - G2, O=SwissSign AG, ...
FEB8C432DCF9769ACEAE3DD8908FFD288665647D  OU=Security Communication EV RootCA1, O="SE...
FE45659B79035B98A161B5512EACDA580948224D  CN=Hellenic Academic and Research Instituti...
FD1ED1E2021B0B9F73E8EB75CE23436BBCC746EB  CN=D-TRUST Root Class 3 CA 2007, O=D-Trust ...
FAB7EE36972662FB2DB02AF6BF03FDE87C4B2F9B  OU=certSIGN ROOT CA, O=certSIGN, C=RO

⇒ Certificate Store Locations in Windows PowerShell

⇐ Start Windows PowerShell

⇑ Managing Certificates with Windows PowerShell

⇑⇑ Windows Certificates Tutorials