Fixing Crypt32 Event ID 8: Failed auto update retrieval of third-party root list

The application log can be filled with Crypt32 error if Windows is unable to download and update the trusted root certificates due to connection issue. The event id looks like:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: crypt32
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8
Date: date
Time: time
User: user name
Computer: computer name
Description:
Failed auto update retrieval of third-party root list sequence number from:

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootseq.txt

 with error: This operation returned because the timeout period expired.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://support.microsoft.com. 

Cause: In my case, the cause was incorrect proxy server configuration due to which WinHTTP could not go onto the internet.

Solution: We would need the utility ProxyCfg to configure proxy configuration for WinHTTP services. This is an inbuilt tool on Windows 2003 server. Use this tool to configure proxy server setting:

ProxyCfg -p <ProxyServer:PORT>

This would configure WinHTTP server to go through my Web proxy ‘MyServer’ on port 80

If you already have IE configured with Proxy server configuraiton, you can copy those settings for WinHTTP by using the command:

ProxyCfg -u

The above command will simply download Internet Explorer’s Proxy configuration for WinHTTP.

For Windows 2008 and later, we do no have Proxycfg utility. We need to use Netsh WinHTTP command.

For displaying the current setting: Netsh WinHTTP Show Proxy

For configuring Proxy server: Netsh WinHTTP Set Proxy <Servername:80>