Cert2spc.exe (Software Publisher Certificate Test Tool)

The Software Publisher Certificate Test tool creates a Software Publisher's Certificate (SPC) from one or more X.509 certificates. Cert2spc.exe is for test purposes only. You can obtain a valid SPC from a Certification Authority such as VeriSign or Thawte. For more information about creating X.509 certificates, see the Makecert.exe (Certificate Creation Tool).

This tool is automatically installed with Visual Studio and with the Windows SDK. To run the tool, we recommend that you use the Visual Studio Command Prompt or the Windows SDK Command Prompt (CMD Shell). These utilities enable you to run the tool easily, without navigating to the installation folder. For more information, see Visual Studio and Windows SDK Command Prompts.

  • If you have Visual Studio installed on your computer: On the taskbar, click Start, click All Programs, click Visual Studio, click Visual Studio Tools, and then click Visual Studio Command Prompt.

    -or-

    If you have the Windows SDK installed on your computer: On the taskbar, click Start, click All Programs, click the folder for the Windows SDK, and then click Command Prompt (or CMD Shell).

  • At the command prompt, type the following:

cert2spc cert1.cer | crl1.crl [... certN.cer | crlN.crl] outputSPCfile.spc

Parameters

Argument

Description

certN.cer

The name of an X.509 certificate to include in the SPC file. You can specify multiple names separated by spaces.

crlN.crl

The name of a certificate revocation list to include in the SPC file. You can specify multiple names separated by spaces.

outputSPCfile.spc

The name of the PKCS #7 object that will contain the X.509 certificates. You can use the .spc file as input to the File Signing Tool (Signcode.exe).

Option

Description

/?

Displays command syntax and options for the tool.

Examples

The following command creates an SPC from myCertificate.cer and places it in mySPCFile.spc.

cert2spc myCertificate.cer mySPCFile.spc

The following command creates an SPC from oneCertificate.cer and twoCertificate.cer, and places it in mySPCFile.spc.

cert2spc oneCertificate.cer twoCertificate.cer mySPCFile.spc

See Also

Reference

Makecert.exe (Certificate Creation Tool)

Visual Studio and Windows SDK Command Prompts

Other Resources

.NET Framework Tools

File Signing Tool (Signcode.exe)