Support device authentication using certificate
- Policy ID
- DevicePKInitEnabled
- Scope
- Computer Configuration
- Supported on
- At least Windows Server 2016, Windows 10
- Source
- Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 11 2026 Update (26H2) (version 1.0)
- Category
- System › Kerberos
Description
Support for device authentication using certificate will require connectivity to a DC in the device account domain which supports certificate authentication for computer accounts.
This policy setting allows you to set support for Kerberos to attempt authentication using the certificate for the device to the domain.
If you enable this policy setting, the devices credentials will be selected based on the following options:
Automatic: Device will attempt to authenticate using its certificate. If the DC does not support computer account authentication using certificates then authentication with password will be attempted.
Force: Device will always authenticate using its certificate. If a DC cannot be found which support computer account authentication using certificates then authentication will fail.
If you disable this policy setting, certificates will never be used.
If you do not configure this policy setting, Automatic will be used.
Follow this guide to configure enterprise PKI: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2340158
Options
Registry
- DevicePKInitEnabledREG_DWORD
- DevicePKInitBehaviorREG_DWORD