Creating the Other People (aka AddressBook) Certificate Store through Registry

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Problem: A common scenario while installing application which consume certificates from the Other People store (or AddressBook in registry terms) is the failure of CertMgr.exe on a clean machine which doesn't have any other certificates. Now the problem will be, for a clean machine which doesn't already have the Other People store, when we are trying to install the certificate using CertMgr.exe it would fails with an error stating that the store specified is not found! The typical solution listed will be "Open Internet Explorer | Internet Options, flip to the Content tab and press the Certificates button. Click the Other People tab and press the Import button to continue". But in case of an automated installation, this obviously is not the answer!

Solution: Using .NET registry API or if you are authoring the setup in WiX, through the Regitry action, create the following key in registry which should then allow you to execute CertMgr.exe to import the certificate at the AddressBook store.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\AddressBook

This will create the Other People store which will be visible in MMC Certificates Snap-in.