This page describes the installation of tools that are needed to generate handles and certificates on Windows machines. If all these tools are installed with the right versions, the user is able to follow the procedure described in this link to create RSA keys and a certificate used with tools for minting and managing handles.

Tools to install on your Windows machine are the following

  • Java
  • Handle.net software
  • OpenSSL Software
  • a private/public key pair and derived certificate

Install Java

To download and install Java you can follow the instructions described in the Java website.

Choose the "Windows online" version when connected to the internet. At time of writing this documentation it installed jre-8u231.

After Java is installed, check if Java is usable by typing this command in Command Prompt. Start a "Windows System" --> "Command Prompt" in Administrator mode and type:

java -version

Java is properly installed if you get information back on the java version that is installed.

Install Handle.net software

Download the Handle.net software from the Handle.Net Registry website.

Click the download button to download the software. At time of writing it is version 9.2.0.

Use 7-Zip to unzip the handle tar.gz file to a tar file. Again use 7-Zip to untar the handle tar file and extract the individual files. Note where the files are unzipped and untarred.

To check if the handle software is properly installed, start a "Windows System" --> "Command Prompt" in Administrator mode. Change your working directory to the untarred handle folder and then run the hdl-admintool command by typing:

cd <path_to_untarred_handle_folder>\handle-9.2.0\bin
hdl-admintool

It will start a Java screen. This shows that the Handle.net software is installed properly. Stop it again using the "X" in the right upper corner.

Install OpenSSL software

The installation of the OpenSSL software on Windows is described here. To retrieve and download the software via the web browser go to this link. At the moment of writing it is version 1.1.1d. Download the executable file and install it (by double-clicking on the downloaded exe file). The files are put in "C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64" While installing, in the “Select Aditional Tasks”, choose the option to copy OpenSSL DLLs to “The OpenSSL binaries (/bin) directory”. Donate (or not) to OpenSSL.

Now set the environment variables to be able to use OpenSSL: - From the desktop, right-click the very bottom-left corner of the screen to get the Power User Task Menu or use "Windows key" + X. - From the Power User Task Menu, click System. - In the Settings window (pictured below), scroll down to the Related settings section on the right side and click the System info link.

- In the System window (pictured below), click the Advanced system settings link in the left navigation pane.

- In the System Properties window (pictured below), click on the Advanced tab, then click the Environment Variables button near the bottom of that tab.

- In the Environment Variables window (pictured below), highlight the “Path” variable in the System variables section and click the Edit button. Add or modify the path lines with the paths you want the computer to access. Each different directory is separated with a semicolon, as shown below.

- In the Edit environment variable window (pictured below) click on “New” button and copy "C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\bin" to the environment variables and click OK. This is no added to the Path variable in the system variables section and then click OK again to save the changes.

- Add a new variable "OPENSSL_CONF" which consists of: "C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\bin\openssl.cfg" in the system variables section.

- To check if OpenSSL is usable, start a new "Windows System" --> "Command Prompt" in Administrator mode and type:

openssl version

If it is installed properly, it should give the version of OPENSSL which is: OpenSSL 1.1.1d

Generate a private/public key pair and a derived certificate

If these all work the user is able to follow the procedure described in this link to generate a private/public key pair and a derived certificate for making handles.