JSI Tip 9877. You receive a 'Failed to generate the certificate request' error when you attempt create a certificate request in IIS?

Jerold Schulman

November 2, 2005

1 Min Read
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When you attempt to create a certificate request in IIS (Internet Information Services), you receive an error similar to:

Failed to generate the certificate request. Access is denied.

This behavior will occur is the administrator does NOT have Full Control permissions on the files and sub-folders at Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftCryptoRSAMachineKeys.

To resolve this problem:

1. Install the Extended Change Access Control List tool (Xcacls.vbs).

2. Open a CMD.EXE window.

3. Type the following command, replacing C:Folder with the location of Xcacls.vbs:

cscript //nologo c:folderxcacls.vbs "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%Application DataMicrosoftCryptoRSAMachineKeys" /F /S /T /E /G "%ComputerName%Administrator":F



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