Hi, I have been playing a bit with certificates and encryption in Outlook. I did following: Sent encrypted message exported user certificate with and without private key and deleted the certificate from Personal storage I could see that Outlook was unable to show me the encrypted email because of missing digital indentity. So I have just imported certificate without private key. It was a surprice, once I have tried to open the encrypted email in sent items and I could see it ! I have checked imported certificate from MMC and voala I had private key ! without importing it! I did it several times with the same result. Can anyone explain me how Outlook could recover private key from just encrypted message ? Are private keys used for encryption held by outlook / exchange somewhere? Thank you to point me out to the right direction ... PeterPeBe

Hi, Which certificate template are you using? Do you mean that you see the message “You have a private key that corresponds to this certificate” when you double-click the certificate in MMC even though you import the certificate without private key? I performed a test with an Administrator certificate but could not reproduce the issue. After I double-clicked the certificate in MMC, I did not see the message “You have a private key that corresponds to this certificate”. A possible cause could be that the private key associated with the certificate still exists in the user profile. The private key is stored in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\User SID\ Key Storage and Retrieval http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb204778(VS.85).aspx In addition, please try deleting the digital ID by performing the steps in the following article and test the issue again: Delete a digital ID http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP012305351033.aspxThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

My first guess is that you may have the same certificate in multiple certificate stores. Open MMC and add the Certificates snap-in twice - once for local computer and once for current user. Locate your certificate under current user - personal - certificates Open the properties - Details tab - select Serial number - copy the serial number and close the cert properties box Select "Certificates - Current User" and right click it - All tasks - Find certificates Do the following: Find in: all cert stores Contains: paste serial number (ok to keep spaces) Look in Field: Serial Number Click Find Now Repeat this under "Certificates - Local Computer" (the search does not search both at the same time).

Hi, How's everything going? We've not heard back from you in a few days and wanted to check the current status of the issue. If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to respond back. Thanks.This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi, I have been playing a bit with certificates and encryption in Outlook. I did following: Sent encrypted message exported user certificate with and without private key and deleted the certificate from Personal storage I could see that Outlook was unable to show me the encrypted email because of missing digital indentity. So I have just imported certificate without private key. It was a surprice, once I have tried to open the encrypted email in sent items and I could see it ! I have checked imported certificate from MMC and voala I had private key ! without importing it! I did it several times with the same result. Can anyone explain me how Outlook could recover private key from just encrypted message ? Are private keys used for encryption held by outlook / exchange somewhere? Thank you to point me out to the right direction ... Peter PeBe Usually I solve my problems with outlook emails with the aid of one instrument. I found it at one soft forum, the tool proved that it was quite reliable and should quickly help in similar problem - repair pst file .