Historical Content Alert

This is a historical content for Windows NT 4.0 product and is presented for informative purposes only. All content in this directory is copyrighted and owned by Microsoft.

Policy Independence

Certificates are granted according to policies that define criteria that requesters must meet in order to receive a certificate. For example, one policy may be to grant commercial certificates only if applicants present their identification in person. Another policy may grant credentials based on e-mail requests. An agency that issues credit cards may choose to consult a database and make phone inquiries before issuing a card.

Policies are implemented in policy modules written in Java, Microsoft® Visual Basic®, or Microsoft C/C++. Microsoft Certificate Server functions are isolated from any changes in policy that an agency might implement. Changes in policy can be fully implemented in the server policy module code.


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