XP desktops receiving certificates??

[Sandy]

Currently have a 2000 domain with W2K servers and,
primarily XP desktops. Need to uninstall our enterprise
certificate authority and reinstall on another server.
Looking at the MMC snapin for certification authority, I
see hundreds of certificates -- most issued to desktops.
Why were they issued certificates? And, more importantly,
what happens in the interim between uninstalling &
reinstalling a certificate authority?

 

[Curtis Clay III [MSFT]]

Hello Sandy,
Machines auto-enroll for certificates for authentication. Once you
uninstall and reinstall your CA those certificates become invlaid. There
will be no functional lose in doing this. However if you want to keep
these certificates intact you should review the articles below.

313272 HOW TO: Back Up and Restore a Certificate Authority in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=313272

298138 HOW TO: Move a Certification Authority to Another Server
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=298138

You may wanna revoke all certificates before you remove your CA if you're
not going to use the old CA again.

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