How do I view the contents of a PFX file on Windows?

Some options to view PFX file details:

• Open a command prompt and type: certutil -dump <path to cert>
• Install OpenSSL and use the commands to view the details, such as: openssl pkcs12 -info -in <path to cert>

You can pipe the info to the openssl x509 utility and then export that out to a file like this:

openssl.exe pkcs12 -info -in c:\temp\cert.pfx | openssl.exe x509 -noout -text > c:\temp\cert.pfx.details.txt

You will be prompted for the certificate passwords too of course.

The contents of a pfx file can be viewed in the GUI by right-clicking the PFX file and selecting Open (instead of the default action, Install).

This will open mmc and show the pfx file as a folder. Open the pfx folder and the Certificates subfolder, and you will see the certificate(s) contained in the pfx. The certificate can be opened to view details.

Alternatively, the GUI can be opened by running mmc certmgr.msc /CERTMGR:FILENAME="C:\path\to\pfx"

It is also possible to use FileTypesMan to change the default (double-click) action for PFX files from Install to Open.