Utilizing your CAC on Windows
11 "can" be as easy as...
Installing the DoD Root
certificates and making sure the
Internet Options are set correctly.
However, computers don't always cooperate with us. So....
Here are my findings and solutions:
Information:
Edge is the default web browser in Windows 11. Internet Explorer
has been REMOVED on the computer which means no backwards compatibility for web pages that do not work
with Edge.
Finding
1. I can't access encrypted emails when using the
Edge web browser
Solution
1:
The Edge web browser does
NOT support S/MIME in DoD Enterprise Email
Information
(from
Microsoft): To understand the problem with OWA, Edge,
and S/MIME you need to know the OWA S/MIME is an Active-X
control. By design Edge does not support Active-X (or Browser Helper
Objects); this is good from a security perspective, but bad if you want to use
OWA with Edge. Windows 11/Edge is a work in progress, Microsoft is planning
to use other technologies to replace Active-X sometime in the future. In the
meantime you must use Internet Explorer 11, BUT, it is not available in
Windows 11. :(
Finding 2. I can't sign
PDFs (Portable Document Format) like I did in older Windows versions
Solution 2: To digitally sign PDFs, you need to
save the PDF to your computer and, NOT use the default PDF viewer of Edge web browser, and
make
Adobe
Reader the default PDF viewer. NO other PDF readers will allow
digitally signing of forms. This
should happen automatically when installing Adobe Reader. However, if it
doesn't, here is how to change the default viewer:
Type:
"default" into the Search the web and Windows / I'm
Cortana / Ask me anything (box) near the Windows
logo at the bottom left of your screen.
Click: Default Programs at
the top of the list.
Click: Associate a file type or protocol
with a program.
Scroll down to .pdf, if it shows Adobe Acrobat
Reader, it is set correctly, if it shows some other program, select .pdf and click the
Change program.. (button) in the upper right corner of the screen.
"Adobe Acrobat Reader" should be in the list of choices, select it and then
OK
Finding 3. Cannot see / select the Authentication / PIV certificate in
Windows 11
Solution 4: Windows 11
users will see the certificate selection different than older versions of
Windows. There is no need to click More choices to see additional certificates.
Select the correct certificate and then click OK. For 99.9%
of DoD websites, we now select the certificate Without the Word
EMAIL in it. In this image below you will notice it does not show
the word Authentication. So, you will need to click on
Certificate Information and select the certificate with the words
Smart Card Logon. That is the Authentication certificate.

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