Certificate Purchasing Guide

Follow the steps below for a trouble free purchase.

• Use Internet Explorer to purchase your certificate.

• Go to the Purchasing Page (if you aren't already there).

• Under the Certificate Details section

  • Select the validity period you want.

  • Enter a contact e-mail if you want your certificate to include one. End users will see this if they look at the properties of your certificate.

• Under the Advanced Private Key Options section

  • Select Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider 1.0 as the CSP

  • Set the Key FileName option to be In the File and select a suitable place to save it (note, if using Vista or Windows 7 you may not be allowed to save it in the root C:\mykey.pvk location that is suggested, simply use an existing directory (the process won't create a directory)).

  • Set the key size to 2048.

  • Make sure Exportable is checked, but User Protected is unchecked.

• Select Next>

• Respond Yes to the message about the website requesting a new certificate.

• Respond Yes to the message asking if you want to create/overwrite a private key.

• Choose a password and enter and confirm it on the password dialog that appears. Do not forget your password, your certificate is completely useless without it, and there is no way to recover it.

• Back up the private key file that has been created. Do not lose it, your certificate will be useless without it and there is no way to recover it!

• Enter your corporate and contact details and select a Management UserId and Password and agree to Comodo's terms and conditions.

• Make payment with a credit card on the following page

You now have to wait while Comodo perform background checks to prove you are who you say you are. They may require you to provide them documentation to prove your identity (all Certificate Authorities do this). This usually takes a day or two.

Once you receive your e-mail from Comodo stating that your certificate is ready for collection don't click on the link that tells you to collect it (although it won't do any harm it's the hard way to do it). Instead...

• Run X2Net SignCode

• Select the Download Purchased Comodo Software Publishing Certificate... menu option from the Certificates menu.

• Enter the collection code in the dialog that appears.

• Select where you want to save the certificate.

You can collect your certificate as often as you want, but we strongly recommend that you save both it and your Private Key File (pvk) securely. (You can also collect your certificate from a different machine than you requested it on, something you can't do if you click on the link in Comodo's e-mail).

You will now have both a Private Key File (.pvk file) and a Software Publishing Certificate (.spc file). Those two files, plus your Private Key File password, are all you need to sign your code.