blog.averetek

I had the need to install an SSL server certificate on my development machine. Of course, for development, nobody wants to go out and buy a real certificate from a real CA. I knew that many CAs offer free certificates for development, but you still have to jump through their hoops, wait for them to issue it, etc. There's also OpenSSL, but that has it's own set of hoops.

Turns out Microsoft has made available "Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Resource Kit Tools". One of the tools in the kit allows you to create your own self-signed SSL certificate. Very simple to use, with several overridable parameters if the defaults don't work for you.

If you need SSL on a Windows XP development machine, this looks like the way to go. You can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=56fc92ee-a71a-4c73-b628-ade629c89499&DisplayLang=en.