Preferences

Authority Certificates Configuration

Additional certificates can be considered when forming trust paths and attempting to match root certificates. This is relevant when importing Trusted Certificates and CA replies.

Such Authority Certificates can be sourced from a designated CA Certificates KeyStore and, for Windows users, the Windows Trusted Root Certificates.

To configure the Authority Certificates:

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Preferences. macOS users: From the KeyStore Explorer menu, choose Preferences.
  2. The Preferences dialog will be displayed. Select the Authority Certificates tab.
  3. The default CA Certificates KeyStore is the cacerts file bundled with Java. To change to another KeyStore:
    1. Press the Browse button.
    2. The Choose CA Certificates KeyStore dialog will appear.
    3. Select the drive and folder where the KeyStore file is located.
    4. Type the filename into the File Name text box.
    5. Click on the Choose button.
  4. Tick the Use CA Certificates KeyStore check box to enable its use.
  5. Tick the Use Windows Trusted Root Certificates check box to enable its use.
  6. Press the OK button to save your settings and dismiss the Preferences dialog.
Notes:
  • If the use of the CA Certificates KeyStore is enabled then the first time that you attempt to import a Trusted Certificate or CA Reply in a KeyStore Explorer session you will be prompted for the CA Certificates KeyStore password.
  • The default password for the cacerts file bundled with Java is "changeit".

Trust Checks Configuration

Chain of Trust Checks can be enabled or disabled. This is relevant when importing Trusted Certificates and CA replies. Disabling trust checks simplifies these import processes at the cost of security. In addition, enabling trust checks for CA Reply imports has the advantage of automatically completing key pair chains to any trusted root (if present).

To configure the Trust Checks:

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Preferences. macOS users: From the KeyStore Explorer menu, choose Preferences.
  2. The Preferences dialog will be displayed. Select the Trust Checks tab.
  3. Tick or untick the Import Trusted Certificate and Import CA Reply check boxes to enable and disable the trust checks as required.
  4. Press the OK button to save your settings and dismiss the Preferences dialog.

Password Quality Configuration

KeyStores, Key Pairs and exported key files are protected by passwords. The passwords used to protect these items should be difficult to guess. KeyStore Explorer provides an optional password quality meter which can be used to display the quality rating of all new passwords and, if necessary, enforce a minimum requirement on password quality.

To configure Password Quality:

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Preferences. macOS users: From the KeyStore Explorer menu, choose Preferences.
  2. The Preferences dialog will be displayed. Select the Password Quality tab.
  3. Tick the Enable Password Quality check box to activate the password quality meter.
  4. Tick the Enforce Minimum Password Quality check box to disallow any new passwords weaker than the minimum defined in the next step.
  5. Adjust the Minimum Password Quality slider to select the desired password quality minimum from the range 0-100. The higher the selected minimum the more secure new passwords are required to be.
  6. Press the OK button to save your settings and dismiss the Preferences dialog.

Look and Feel Configuration

KeyStore Explorer can be configured to use a variety of user interface look and feels:

To configure the look and feel:

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Preferences. macOS users: From the KeyStore Explorer menu, choose Preferences.
  2. The Preferences dialog will be displayed. Select the Look and Feel tab.
  3. Select the required user interface from the Look and Feel drop-down and whether or not the application's windows should be Look and Feel Decorated.
  4. Press the OK button to save your settings and dismiss the Preferences dialog.
  5. The application will restart. Upon restart the look and feel changes will be applied.

Internet Proxy Configuration

Your network may require the use of a proxy to access the Internet. KeyStore Explorer utilizes the Internet to check for updates and examine SSL connections. Configuration is required to use such features with a proxy.

To configure the Internet proxy:

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Preferences. macOS users: From the KeyStore Explorer menu, choose Preferences.
  2. The Preferences dialog will be displayed. Select the Internet Proxy tab.
  3. To disable the use of a proxy select the No Proxy radio button.
  4. To use the proxy settings of the operating system select the Use System Proxy Settings radio button.
  5. To make proxy settings manually select the Manual Proxy Configuration radio button. Enter the Host and Port of the HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS proxies as required.
  6. To use a proxy auto configuration (pac) file select the Automatic Proxy Configuration radio button. Enter the PAC URL of the proxy auto configuration file.
  7. Press the OK button to save your settings and dismiss the Preferences dialog.

Tool Bar Configuration

To configure the display of the tool bar:
  1. Select the View menu.
  2. If the Tool Bar menu item is ticked then the tool bar will be shown.
  3. If the Tool Bar menu item is cleared then the tool bar will be hidden.

Status Bar Configuration

To configure the display of the status bar:
  1. Select the View menu.
  2. If the Status Bar menu item is ticked then the status bar will be shown.
  3. If the Status Bar menu item is cleared then the status bar will be hidden.

KeyStore Tab Style Configuration

To configure the KeyStore tab style:
  1. From the View menu, choose the Tab Style sub-menu.
  2. If the Wrap menu item is selected then excess KeyStore tabs will be wrapped.
  3. If the Scroll menu item is selected then excess KeyStore tabs will be scrolled.
Wrapped Tabs: Scrolled Tabs:

Default Name Configuration

This allows to store default values for certificate distinguished names (DNs). When you create a new certificate, the input fields for Common Name, Organizational Unit, Organization etc. are pre-filled with the values from this configuration setting.

To configure the Default Name:

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Preferences. macOS users: From the KeyStore Explorer menu, choose Preferences.
  2. The Preferences dialog will be displayed. Select the Default Name tab.
  3. Enter any part of the DN that you normally use in your certificate DNs.
  4. Press the OK button to save your settings and dismiss the Preferences dialog.