CTLInfo

CTLInfo is a lightweight piece of software that provides you with a quick way to inspect the full list of the Windows root certificates. Even though you can check out the CTL in the dedicated Certificate Manager, you should bear in mind that the latter tool displays only a handful.

Root certificates represent the first level of security that can confirm that the communication is genuine and not tampered with. Generally speaking, the messages between websites, individuals and browsers are encrypted with keys that are released by the Certificate Issuing Authority. If the keys are legit, the communication takes place instantly, whereas if it is corrupt, you can view a message that there is a problem with the website's certificate.

The idea behind the application is to provide you with the complete list of certificate information, both the trusted and untrusted side-by-side. In the main window, you can preview a summary regarding the total number of CTLs along with their raw file size, sequence number and the signer expiration.

In case you want to learn more about these certificates, you can access the Details button where you can view the Subject ID along with the friendly – or known name – for each CTL. For the time being, Windows recognized over 170 trusted certificates, but that number can change every week, following the regular update.

Windows is set to check for trusted certificates once every week, whereas the untrusted CTL is inspected for updates every day. Not only can you preview when the last update took place, but the tool also displays when the content was last modified.

Thanks to a tool such as CTLInfo, you can maintain the security of your OS by regularly checking for changes in the root certificates and prevent apps from accesses potentially suspicious servers or websites.