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When you install a Windows forest CA you have the option to make it standalone or enterprise. I have an existing installation which I am assuming is standalone as it doesn't have a certificate templates folder when I load the management console.

However, I can't find anything that definitively says "This is a standalone CA", such as under an "About" option in the management console. For all I know this could be a malfunctioning enterprise CA. How do I definitively tell whether my CA is standalone or enterprise?


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What version of Windows? –  Joe Doyle Jan 27 '10 at 0:35
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up vote 2 down vote accepted

Does this thread help you? Looks like you were on the right track.

Quoting Jediah L. in the previously mentioned thread:

A Standalone will be a root CA that is not subordinated (contains a self-attested certificate), and is not integrated into active directory at all. If it's integrated into active directory you will be publishing the root CA information into active directory and using LDAP as publication and distribution points.

Looks like a lot of good things return with a Google search.

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Either of the following methods should work:

  1. Run the certutil command:

    certutil -getreg ca\catype

    The output will tell you whether this is an Enterprise or Standalone CA: enter image description here

  2. Alternatively, you can check for the presence of the Certificate Templates node. If Certificate Templates is present, then this is an Enterprise CA (Standalone CA's don't use templates): enter image description here

(Link to Reference)

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