Certificate Templates problem

Hi all,

I have a problem that I do not understand.  I create a new enterprise CA earlier this month on a Windows Server 2012R2 member server.  I followed a guide I found on TechNet somewhere (don't have the link handy) and the installation was straightforward and simple enough. Upon starting up the Certification Authority MMC console, I went to manage the Certificate Templates and was presented with a popup about updating or upgrading the certificate templates, which I agreed to, and didn't think much more about it.

However, now I notice that there are duplicate certificate templates for every template, see image: http://s3.postimg.org/jl04qbiub/Capture.jpg

How do I get rid of these duplicates?  I can see them here but I'm afraid of the implications of just deleting them: http://s7.postimg.org/j0crz1fqz/Capture1.jpg

Anybody ever seen this before or have any suggestions? 


  • Edited by wer83 Tuesday, July 28, 2015 4:03 AM
July 28th, 2015 4:01am

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I have no option to delete any of these from the MMC snap-in. Any ideas how to get rid of them safely? 
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July 28th, 2015 2:42pm

You can use ADSIEdit.Msc and look in the Configuration Context, Services, Public Key Services, Certificate Templates container and remove them there.
July 28th, 2015 3:27pm

Great, thanks. I just wanted to confirm that was an acceptable solution and wouldn't melt down anything.

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July 28th, 2015 5:53pm

Just as follow-up/conclusion to this thread, I followed the advice of Vadims and Mark above and had no trouble after removing the bogus templates from AD.

Just as any FYI for anyone who finds themselves in the same boat in the future, I was going to open another thread about another CA problem I was having; I had a domain controller that was receiving new certificates every 8 hours and I was going insane trying to figure out why.  It seems that was related to this; since I deleted those bad templates, the server has stopped requesting/receiving new certs every 8 hours. No errors are being logged, so I'm feeling like we're all good now. 

Thanks again everyone!

July 29th, 2015 12:10pm

You can use ADSIEdit.Msc and look in the Configuration Context, Services, Public Key Services, Certificate Templates container and remove t
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
July 30th, 2015 1:51am

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