I trying to open certificates on a remote computer using the CertOpenStore API function. I want to read the certificates held in the personal store for a particular user. My code works for Win NT, but for Windows 2000 or higher, the certificate store opens but with no certificates.

I know there are certificates in the personal certificate store for the user I looking at, as MMC shows me them all.

I found that certificates on Windows 2000 or higher get written to users home directory, rather than stored in the registry. But according to MSDN this shouldn't make a difference.

If I query the personal certificate store of the user on the machine directly I can see the certificates, but as soon as I try do it remotely the store is empty.

Is there a bug that exists when open stores remotely on Win 2000 and higher?

I have included a snippet of my code to open the store remotely

CertOpenStore(CERT_STORE_PROV_SYSTEM_A, 0,
NULL,
CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_USERS | CERT_STORE_READONLY_FLAG | CERT_STORE_OPEN_EXISTING_FLAG,
"\\\\computerName\\user_SID\\MY"))


Thanks for your help