Microsoft now has a Certificates viewing app for Windows Phone

No shit, leave jas alone...cunt...

This is a security mechanism. And, unless you're worried about forged certs from developers pretending to be someone else, you probably don't need to know about this. A certificate is used to verify that the publisher of something is indeed who they say they are. A lot of websites will pretend to be something else and look legit, but are malicious. Certificates can help protect against that. An explanation of the tech in the article would have a bonus for WP users even if they don't need to actively know about them.

Thank you RayWP7.

Actually its very useful. If you work with MDM or Wi-Fi auth like EAP-TLS, you will be in the realm of certs all the time.
Right now its a pain to get to the certs. This app will be most welcome to enterprise IT staff managing mobile phones.

To check for superfish on your phone :D No seriously, if you don't have knowledge about certificates, they're probably better left untouched.

What is the use of this app

Its literally in the second paragraph. Good Lord, the quality of this comment section is tanking.

Seriously, just read the bullet points in the post. They'll tell you what you need to know.

Hahaha omg! A solution will be copy/paste the entire article in the comment section ;)

@Victor Alexander Feliz Melo, why does the Author need to copy and paste when some just don't read?

@richard Devine, I think what we are wanting to know is just an explanation of what a "certificate" is - forgive our ignorance. I realise the whole article explained the features of the app, but in a way that assumed you already know what certificates are.

I also want to know that what are the certificates..

Well then ask the correct question.

For it's size it's worth having, very handy thing to have, it won't be much different to use as one on laptop or desktop will it

After I read the question many times, over and over again, it still says, "What is the use of this app?", which was answered correctly. If he want to ask what certificate is and what good does it do, then ask the proper question. We are not psychic who can read anyone's mind. :3

Certificates enable trusted machine to machine communication, encrypted connections, and everything around MS security. With Windows 10, certificates will also replace usernames/passwords in favor of two factor auth enabled by Windows Hello.

You probably should have explained what they are before the copied/pasted bullet list..

Did you actually read the article or did you skip straight to the Post Comment button.
Daniel, just close these ones off already.

What's the big idea?

It was released in 2014.

Probably, most will skip this one.. :P

Hey Richard, I'm too lazy to take 4 seconds to read something. Tell me what the point of this app is?!?!

hahahaha.... ...but really, what's the use..... :-P

Quoting your comment
"Its literally in the second paragraph.
Good Lord, the quality of this comment section is tanking."

This app exists in the store for several months.

I know this seems to happen with wc alot of the time

So why didn't you tip us? Considering we got this information from Reddit (posted today) it's safe enough to say barely anyone knew about it. I've never seen it as I'm positive have none of the other writers here.

Last few times I checked "other apps by Microsoft Corporation", this one wasn't listed, so... It was under the radar, as it's written in the article.

Actually It is not your problem. I like to dig into the store for finding interesting apps. There are a lot of good quality but unnoticed apps. Sometimes I am surprised why these apps struggle to rise on lists.

Or, you just looked at the release date in the store when you found out about it today and pretended to know about it for months?

What is the point to do this?

I tipped like 2-3 months ago.

And do you know about Field Medic App..??

I had it installed since february.

I've been using the app for months. Great for enterprise users and admins.

It was a part of several mobile related discussions at build and ignite. There are many other similar tools for the mobile admin.

Sounds too technical, but what's the actual use, I mean like what do these certificates actually do ??

In this instance they simply verify / authenticate / validate a user, source or connection.

Unless you're using a service which requires you to manage certificates, then you have no use for this app. It's more for developers, systems administrators, and enterprise users.

Lol

Not for me, I'm pretty sure ;)

:(

If your asking what is the use, then you probably don't need it, or you need to dive into the subject and question if it's useful to you to know this information.  It's technical info about things, put that that way, about your phone.

Pretty useless in case of work with self-issued(or company issued) certificates because there is no option to delete certificate. The main reason to have this app is to delete bad certificates, because there is no other way to delete certificate except device reset.

I guess this is just for troubleshooting on the user device side. As IT could always push a good one and remove the bad one.

No, there is no way to remove bad certificate.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry from skimming through these comments. Seriously, humanity is doomed if the lack of reading comprehension is passed down to future generations.
For people who don't know what this app is for or Certificates are then this app is not for you. In the simplest sense Certificates for this instance are to show an element is authentic and used to verify either the user or source + authenticate (/ validate) the user request to access a restricted source or to indicate a connection is secure . Similar like how you get a physical certificate from examination body i.e OCR, Edexcel verifying you had sat the exam under authenticated set rules.

k

True, so true. I am a campus president of a college. When I bother to look into curriculum realignment and read, or have to use the Rosetta Stone to decipher term papers...I weep with frustration...

Rosetta Stone....   I hope you realize what you're saying there.

Yes, read what I had written that I was trying to do...then it will make sense...

I can't see myself using this ever.

Man, this would have been soooo useful several years ago when I was having issues with my company's custom cert on my phone. Glad to see it's available now though.

It says about the "Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility" certificate:
Valid through
10/1/1997 10:00:00 AM to 12/31/2002 10:00:00 AM
!!??

So what are you trying to convey here...

Nothing man!, just thought it is weird, and maybe someone will have an explanation for.

The dates are whacked, I don't think anyone really knows here, except a select few...

An expired cert isn't necessarily a bad thing.   Although it is if you wanted to say, unlock a Windows Phone 8 device, as the signed cert required for that expired.  

This is really useful for some of us.

Finally an app for me!

Wish it would allow disabling/removing the certs you want. But it's a good step

Wish I had this earlier. My school before had bad certs...

Been using it for ages. Thought windows central already covered it long ago, didn't bother to tip. Anyway, the version number is relatively new but the review dates on the store will tell you how old the app is.
Purpose of the app? Dev stuff. If you ain't one of them, pass on.

I'll have a go at helpful comments. Certificates are digital files that are a kind of identity card - think along the lines of a driver's license, a passport, your Costco membership card, et cetera. They're useful as a way for you to identify yourself to someone else - say, your mail provider - and also for servers to identify themselves to you (this is why HTTPS works). Why are they better than usernames and passwords? Well, passwords can be guessed, shared, given out. Certificates are much harder to falsify - not impossible, but much harder. Is it better than two factor authentication? I think so, but I can't spell out why without taking the afternoon trying to work it out. If you're using two-factor authentication for where you can, then you're fine - good job. Here's a scenario. I want to access my corporate mail from my mobile phone. My work admins create a certificate representing me, and sign it with their certificate to make it authentic. (To the nitpickers - their certificate came from a provider such as Verisign, that we've all agreed to trust.) I take that certificate and install it on my phone. Now my phone carries my identification. The math is super cool, but using "public key cryptography", I have the public half of my identity on my phone, my company has the private half, and when you put the two together, they can validate that I am me. So, why is the app useful? Certificates can accumulate for some people. It's good to see what's installed to avoid conflicts if you work routinely with certificates. (It'd be even nicer if they gave us a way to remove certificates, but hey.) If you aren't already using certificates - and you'd know, because there's all sorts of hoops and hurdles to getting things set up just right - then this isn't a reason to go out and try and start using them. Set up two-factor authentication wherever you can (Microsoft services, Google services, Dropbox, Apple services, anyplace that will text you a code when you try to login) to be safer.

I couldn't have done it better. Nicely explained!
But honestly, do you think they'll read your comment when they can't read a few-lines-article? Those who need will do, I guess...

Well, yeah, I do. Reading back, I don't think the issue was people not reading the article, but people reading the whole article and not getting the point of what a certificate is. The TL;DR crowd won't come back for this comment anyway.

Could Certificates with an "Expired or not yet valid" status affect system stability? Because I've noticed quite a few of them.

No, they're not executable code, just strings of information. I can't think of a way that they would impact system stability.

Too long. But u said it the right way. ! Humanity has still hopes left.! :P

Good fuckin job, mate...

Thank you, i am sure that if people read down this far they will now understand if they don't already know.

I think the private key have to be on your phone and the public key is with the company and whoever you give to. You have to digitally sign your email or encrypt your files with your private key. The receipent will use your public key to verify that you actually sent the email. Also the public key is used to decrypt files. Note: A digital signuature is just  the hash of you email message encrypted with your private key.

You may be right, I may have the public and private ends of the certificate backwards. It's been a while since I was working with these. Thanks for the explanation!

Kudos to coffeemike for being decent and polite. The internets need more people like you (especially in comment sections)

This app has been in the store for quite a long time. I installed it but saw no practical use for it so uninstalled it after a month or so.

The sad thing is that this app is practically hidden from the rest of WP users. MS does not promote it anywhere, its not built into the OS (where it should have initially been in anyway...) If this articles was new even for me, who read this site on daily basis, guess how many people (even IT-related ones) have no clue there is indeed some rudimentally basic app from MS to work with problems on EAP-TLS wifi networks and user certificates-based authentication problems. I have a customer that needs user certificates for WP8, they have no MDM, no windows Intune subscription. I have googled in the last 3 weeks all over to find a damn guide which shows how can I enroll a damn user certificate for a WP phone without SCCM and MDM. The certificate web enrollment page (the well known CAserver/certsrv website) does not proceed after the final step but stucks there.. so the user certificate is not generated on the phone, and all the crappy websites just keep repeating and repeating the damn intune. I dont have and dont want intune!

Near useless, needs to be able to remove certificate

Finally...

Fuck some of you people are mean to each other

Well I would just like to say that this is very useful to me and I didn't know it existed. I may be able to sort out my VPN now. Thank you WC / Richard.

Just get WSMAN running on the phone and let me enter-pssession. I'll manage certs that way.  

LOL, there is no powershell UI on WP8 to have your wish fullfilled.