Disabling the Internet Explorer Feature That Checks for Server Certificate Revocation

Q: For the purpose of troubleshooting a certificate issue, we would like to turn off server certificate revocation checking in Internet Explorer (IE). How can we do this?

A: Starting with IE 7.0, server certificate revocation checking is enabled by default.You can disable this feature by clicking Internet Options on the Tools menu, selecting the Advanced tab, and clearing the Check for server certificate revocation check box, as Figure 1 shows. You need to restart IE in order for this setting to take effect.

Figure 1: Disabling the IE Feature That Checks for Server Certificate Revocation

Disabling the revocation check in production environments isn't recommended, so you must make sure to enable it again after troubleshooting. Certificate revocation checking protects your clients against the use of invalid server authentication certificates either because they have expired or because they were revoked (e.g., when a server certificate was compromised).