Digital certificates are tools that can help when carry out procedures online that have to do with public administration. They can be stored in the browser, to be used whenever necessary . In Spain they are delivered by the National Currency and Stamp Factory (FNMT). Although they are also granted by those authorized professional associations or by the European Digital Trust Agency.
It is always advisable to export your certificate to a pendrive to create a backup inside and outside your computer. This in case the equipment you use constantly suffers from a failure or if the browser It has problems. The process for obtaining these is a bit cumbersome, because you should not only request it online, but you must go to a registration office in person. It takes a lot of time, so once you have it it is important that you make a backup that will not take you more than a few minutes.
In this tutorial we will explain step by step how to export a digital certificate to a pendrive. Similarly how to use it in other browsers. Use caution when choosing the device you are going to use to store your certificate. Try to make it strictly personal and only use it in places you trust completely.
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What are the reasons and uses? download a digital certificate to import it to another PC?
There may be different reasons that encourage you to create a copy of a digital certificate, one of them will be to send it to another computer. As mentioned earlier these are used for public administration procedures, under the name of the same certificate holder.
Which means that another person will not be able to use your data to carry out their own procedures, so it is important that each user has their own separate. They can be used in different browsers or from another computer with the help of a flash drive or portable memory to be able to install it again, and thus save the inconvenience of making a new request and downloading it.
Surely you will ask What is one of these for? This has several functions, some of them are to sign certain documents such as PDF and Word. Also to be able to identify through the Internet correctly.
On the other hand, it offers benefits, such as being able to securely access bank data and Electronic Administration, and also help in expediting procedures and others administrative management at the online level. That is why it is essential to download and import it to any other (external) equipment to protect it.
Steps to export and import a digital certificate from one computer to another
The main and most important thing is to have a digital certificate already downloaded to your computer. No matter what web browser you are in, you just have to follow a series of steps that can vary a bit according to the one you use to perform the process.
The recommended browsers for this are: Internet Explorer (Edge) and Mozilla Firefox, although you can use Google Chrome and others of your choice.
From Google Chrome
Before creating the copy of your security certificate in Google Chrome , verify that you have installed your digital certificate and the keys to which they are associated. You can see them in «Certificate Store».
The steps to take are the following:
- You are going to press the representedMenu account.
- Then choose the option accounConfiguration further.
- Now you will proceed to search «Advanced Settings» . To do this you will download a little on the screen, it is at the bottom.
- You will look for the option of «Manage certificates».
- In the tab that says «Personal» you will choose the certificate that belongs to you and then click on importantExportantly.
- A window will now open that says “Certificate export wizard”. In it you will click on subsequentlyNextly.
- Check the option «Export private key» and then press subsequentlyNextly.
- In the other window that will appear, you will not change any parameters you will only press subsequentlyNextly.
- In the next tab you must create a password, which will protect the file you are going to create with your online certification data. You are going to choose the “Password” option and then you will have to enter the new password, try to make it difficult to guess and to remember without problems.
- Now you just retype the same password to confirm and you will press subsequentlyNextly.
- Now you will define the location where you will save the file, for this you will click on «Browse» and indicate the destination. In this case you are interested in it being a USB (pendrive) device.
- You just have to connect the storage device to the PC and look for its storage address. Indicate the name of the file, you can use: certificate of identification.pfx . Finally, you will click on importantNextly.
- You will click on finished Finish accordingly.
- A new one will open window, only in case the digital certificate you are exporting has an entry key, which was created at the time of generating or creating it. This will be called CryptoAPI private key. There you will only click on admittedAcceptably.
- The wizard will give you a warning that the export was successful, just click on «Accept».
- Finally and what strong> more important , you are going to locate the file you created and you must change the extension .pfx to .p12. Although both are equivalent there are applications that request the certificate by .p12. (It is a necessary process for each file that you export regardless of which browser you do it.)
- To change the file extension you just have to right click on the file and choose the “Rename” option, delete the extension .pfx and place .p12.
From Mozilla Firefox
As in previous cases, first make sure that the certificates you are going to export are installed in the browser, if this is the case we proceed to carry out the processes to create a backup of these to use them on another computer.
It should be noted that if the browser is deleted, if you reinstall Windows or format and change the PC you will lose everything and you will have to request it again, so a backup is essential.
- Search for the “Menu” option then choose “Options”, followed by this choose “Privacy and security” and then Last “Certificates” . There you will choose «View certificates».
- It is possible that the system will ask you to enter a password. This will be the one that belongs to the digital certificate you created.
- You will be placed in the tab «Your certificates» and you will choose the one you are going to export and then click on «Make a copy».
- Now you will proceed to indicate the path where the file will be saved, in this case it will be a portable storage device, we indicate that path, followed by the name with which we will identify the file . You will click on “Accept” to continue.
- You will now create a backup password, which will protect the file you are doing the backup, this same password will be requested every time the file is installed on a new computer or browser.
- You must create a password between 4 to 8 digits , is concerned that it is not easy to guess and avoid using personal data, birthday dates or similar. But that you can remember it and don’t forget it easily. Confirm the password and press equally Accept important.
- The system will send you a message notifying you that the export has been completed successfully, just click on «Accept».
From Microsoft Edge (Explorer)
Unfortunately exporting digital certificates from Microsoft Edge is not possible, the same program does not allow its users any action in relation to them.
But we can use internet explore for this purpose, since it is fully functional and should not present failures when using it.
- Enter “Internet explore”.
- Click “Settings” and then “Internet options ».
- You will click on the «Content» window and you will select the option respectivelyCertificates correctly.
- Your personal certificate will appear with your first and last name, which you can locate in the “Personal” tab, select it and go to “Export”.
- In the “Certificate export wizard” window just press “Next”.
- Do not change any of the parameters that appear on the screen, just press “Next” . The parameters that will appear on the screen are the following: «Personal information exchange PKCS # 12 (.PFX)» / «Include all certificates in the certification route» (if possible).
- Now you just have to create a password to enter every time you go to install the certificate on another computer or browser. This allows a maximum of 8 digits.
- Finally, decide where you want to save the file. Since you want to use an external memory or flash drive, it will be connected to the computer and you will indicate the route of the same to be saved and the name of the east. Press “Next” and finally represented Finish filed.
- You may be asked for the private exchange key; This is the one used when using the digital certificate from the browser.
I forgot the password of the digital certificate How do I recover it?
If you forgot your password to be able to enter your digital certificate and be able to use it, there is no remote way to recover it. So you will have to go to the Public Administration center, where you have made the request and report that you lost it.
After that you will have to create a new digital certificate and perform the steps again for proper installation in your browser.