In order to install a renewed certificate, PKI Services requires function that CAPICOM has provided. However, Microsoft has announced that it is not supporting CAPICOM on Windows 7. Although you can still install and use CAPICOM on Windows 7, there is no guarantee that it will continue to function properly. To avoid loss of function, PKI Services provides two ActiveX programs that can be used instead of CAPICOM to provide the function that PKI Services requires to renew a certificate. One ActiveX program is for Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows, and one is for Windows Vista and later versions of Windows. You can choose to use either CAPICOM or the PKI Services ActiveX program for your version of Windows. The PKI Services administrator must decide whether to provide signed or unsigned versions of the ActiveX programs, and in which directory the ActiveX programs are stored on the PKI Services server. These administrator tasks are described in Administrator tasks for setting up a Windows system and Internet Explorer to work with the PKI Services Web application.

The script used in the template and Java™ Server page (JSP) to renew and install a certificate from Internet Explorer first calls the PKI Services ActiveX program for the required functions. If the ActiveX program is not found, the script calls the CAPICOM functions. If the CAPICOM functions are not found, PKI Services prompts the user to install the ActiveX program.