CertOpenSystemStoreW

CertOpenSystemStoreW is a Microsoft Cryptographic API (CryptoAPI) function that opens a handle to a specified system certificate store. A certificate store is a repository for digital certificates and their associated private keys. System stores are pre-defined locations within the Windows operating system used to store certificates for various purposes, such as trusted root certificates, personal certificates, or certificates for specific applications.

The function takes a handle to a cryptographic provider, a pointer to a string specifying the store name, and flags that control how the store is opened. The store name is a null-terminated Unicode string. Common store names include "MY" for the personal information exchange store, "ROOT" for the trusted root certification authorities store, and "CA" for intermediate certification authorities. The flags can specify whether the store should be opened for reading, writing, or both, and whether it should be transactional.

Upon successful execution, CertOpenSystemStoreW returns a handle to the opened certificate store. This handle can then be used with other CryptoAPI functions to perform operations on the store, such as enumerating certificates, adding new certificates, or deleting existing ones. If the function fails, it returns NULL, and GetLastError can be called to retrieve an error code. The returned handle must be closed using the CertCloseStore function when it is no longer needed.