What do I need to do to get Internet Explorer 8 to accept a self signed certificate?

We use self signed certificates on our intranet. What do I need to do to get Internet Explorer 8 to accept them without showing an error message to the user? What we did for Internet Explorer 7 apparently isn't working.

EDIT: Internet Explorer 7 wouldn't show any errors if I put the certificate into trusted root certification authorities. Internet Explorer 8 seems to show errors even with the certificate there.

Solution 1:

How to make IE8 trust a self-signed certificate in 20 irritating steps

Browse to the site whose certificate you want to trust.
When told “There is a problem with this website's security certificate.”, choose “Continue to this website (not recommended).”
Select Tools➞Internet Options.
Select Security➞Trusted sites➞Sites.
Confirm the URL matches, and click “Add” then “Close”.
Close the “Internet Options” dialog box with either “OK” or “Cancel”.
Refresh the current page.
When told “There is a problem with this website's security certificate.”, choose “Continue to this website (not recommended).”
Click on “Certificate Error” at the right of the address bar and select “View certificates”.
Click on “Install Certificate...”, then in the wizard, click “Next”.
On the next page select “Place all certificates in the following store”.
Click “Browse”, select “Trusted Root Certification Authorities”, and click “OK”.
Back in the wizard, click “Next”, then “Finish”.
If you get a “Security Warning” message box, click “Yes”.
Dismiss the message box with “OK”.
Select Tools➞Internet Options.
Select Security➞Trusted sites➞Sites.
Select the URL you just added, click “Remove”, then “Close”.
Now shut down all running instances of IE, and start up IE again.
The site’s certificate should now be trusted.

Solution 2:

I got it working like this

Start Internet Explorer running as a user with administrative privileges.
Browse to server computer using the computer name (ignore certificate warnings)
Click the ”Certificate Error” text in the top of the screen and select ”View certificates”
In the Certificate dialog, click Install Certificate -> Next
Select Place all certificates in the following store -> Browse
Check Show Physical Stores check box
Select Trusted Root Certificate Authorities – Local Computer
Click OK – Next – Finish – OK
Restart Internet Explorer

Solution 3:

I have tried lots and lots of steps from different people posted on different websites. But none of them mention that I should add the certificate into the Trusted People keystore.

That's right, placing it under trusted CA is not enough for my case, I have to put the certs inside the Trusted People also.

That's:

Run MMC
Add Certificate Snap-in choose Local Computer
Expand Certificates(Local Computer) -> Trusted People -> Certificates
Right click All Task -> Import
Finish the wizard

To export the certificate:

Run IE as admin (right click, run as admin)
When prompted invalid cert, go ahead visit the website anyway
Click the certificate error near the address, click view certificate
Go to Details tab, click Copy To file
Save as *.cer file.

I'm on IE9, Windows 7

Solution 4:

Make sure that your self-signed certificate matches your site URL. If it does not, you will continue to get a certificate error even after explicitly trusting the certificate in Internet Explorer 8 (I don't have Internet Explorer 7, but Firefox will trust the certificate regardless of a URL mismatch).

If this is the problem, the red "Certificate Error" box in Internet Explorer 8 will show "Mismatched Address" as the error after you add your certificate. Also, "View Certificates" has an Issued to: label which shows what URL the certificate is valid against.

Solution 5:

If you're getting an address mismatch error, just allow address mismatches:

Tools and select Internet Options
select the Advanced tab
Scroll down and uncheck Warn about certificate address mismatch