Export the PVK file for Microsoft Authenticode from the certificate store

Under Vista and Seven, Authenticode privates keys and certificates are stored in the internal certificates store (available via Internet Explorer).

If you want to keep using Signcode, you'll have to retrieve the .pvk file, knowing that the .spc file is always available and can be download from your certificate's status page.

To do so:

1. Download the pvk.exe tool available on is author website or here
2. Download OpenSSL for Windows if it is not already done
3. Install OpenSSL and pvk.exe on your machine
4. Export your certificate in PFX without activating the enhanced protection
5. Extract the private key from the .pfx file
   Provide the password for your .pfx file
   openssl.exe pkcs12 -in mycert.pfx -nocerts -nodes -out mykey.pem
6. create the .pvk
   pvk.exe -in mykey.pem -topvk -strong -out mykey.pvk

You can now use your .pvk file wih the .spc one downloaded from your certificate's status page.