Windows 7: I would like to know more about certificates and certificate manager

hello

I am trying to understand my operating system and have come across the Certificate Manager and I do not recognise most of the servers I have permanent connection to or Authorities. I suffer from spam and because of my work, I occasionally pick up a virus. Normally, I would wipe my hard-drive but I would prefer to hunt down the problems - I just lack the knowledge.

Are certificates a source of spam and is it safe to delete them all and only load those that I need, please?

What is it that you are seeing? What does Certificate Manager contain? Show us.
My initial response is. DO NOT DELETE anything.

Certificates are not a source of spam, they are a way for windows to determine if the software is genuine and compatible.

I will not delete any files.

I attach a snip of the manager showing some of the files.

Regards.

That looks fine. just don't worry about it.

Dear kado897

I note what you say above but I have received an update from Microsoft that seems to raise some of the issues that I discussed above.

Regards

Yes there was a problem. I believe one of the certificate servers was hacked. The update you are talking about was to close that loophole by revoking certificates issues by it.