Cannot Request a Certificate from a Certification Authority Running on Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (326782)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to obtain a certificate from a Certification Authority (CA) that is running on a Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3)-based computer by logging on to the Web enrollment page, you may experience both of the following behaviors:

You receive a "Downloading ActiveX control" message.

-and-
The ActiveX control download operation does not succeed and therefore, you cannot obtain a certificate.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs if both of the following conditions are true:

The client computer is running Windows 95 or Windows 98.

-and-
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or earlier is installed on the client computer.

SP3 for Windows 2000 includes a new ActiveX control that must be downloaded before clients can create and submit a certificate request to a CA that is running on a Windows 2000 SP3-based computer. This ActiveX control does not run on Windows 95 or Windows 98-based computers with Internet Explorer 4.01 SP2 or earlier installed.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, and to permit Windows 95 and Windows 98-based clients to successfully obtain certificates by using Web-based certificate enrollment, install Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later on the client computers.

To obtain the latest version of Internet Explorer, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

MORE INFORMATION

This issue may also occur if the Microsoft Windows Certificate Server computer has not been updated.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

330389 Internet Explorer Stops Responding at "Downloading ActiveX Control" Message When You Try to Use a Certificate Server

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.