Add a self-signed certificate to the trusted root certificate store using the command line

Have you tried it manually (by double clicking on the CER file)? Even doing it manually doesn't work and you may run into Vista errors .

Install the root CA certificate from the command line (cmd.exe)

(This requires the Windows SDK. VisualStudio will install it for you and add it to it %PATH%.)

certmgr /add /c mycertificate.cer /s /r localMachine root

Note that no errors will be reported; the command will always return success (even with a non-existing certificate file!). If the certificate does not appear in the Certificate Manager ( ) certmgr.mscafter running this command, repeat the process using the following manual steps to check for any errors in the certificate file.

Manual steps to install the root CA certificate

1. Double-click the .cerfile.
2. In the Certificate dialog box, click Install Certificate to start the Certificate Import Wizard .
3. On the Welcome page, click Next .
4. On the Certificate Store page, select Place all certificates in the following store , and then click Browse .
5. In the Select Certificate Store dialog box, select Show Physical Store .
6. Double-click Trusted Root Certification Authorities , select Local Computer , and then click OK .
7. On the Certificate Store page, click Next .
8. On the summary page, review the details and click Finish .

Install the root CA certificate from PowerShell

See @harrymc's great answer below.