FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Short, honest answers. If your question isn’t here, the GitHub issue tracker is the fastest way to reach us.
Trust and browsers
Will my browser still show a warning?
No. The certificates are signed by a Root CA installed in the Windows trust store, so Edge and Chrome trust them. Firefox keeps its own store — set security.enterprise_roots.enabled to true in about:config once and it will trust them too.
Why is a self-signed certificate not enough?
A self-signed certificate has no chain of trust, so the browser correctly refuses to trust it and shows the red “Your connection is not private” warning. WAMP SSL Automator instead creates a local Root CA, trusts it once in Windows, and signs each domain certificate with it — which is why there is no warning.
Does the CA leave my machine?
Never. The Root CA and its private key are generated locally and stored on your machine. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, and the CA only ever signs the development domains you explicitly add.
Safety and your config
Does it overwrite my existing Apache config?
No. It merges. Only the domains you manage with the tool are added or replaced, inside clearly marked sections of httpd-vhosts.conf. Everything else is preserved, and every run is backed up first.
What if Apache won’t restart?
The tool validates the config with httpd -t before restarting, and rolls back automatically if the restart fails — restoring your old files and the working config, with the Apache error log included in the message.
Can I run it more than once?
Yes — it is idempotent. Re-running reuses the CA and still-valid certificates, and cleanly replaces the managed blocks. Adding or removing a domain and re-running is the intended workflow.
How do I remove a domain?
Take it out of the list and re-run. Its managed vhost block and hosts-file entry are cleanly removed; nothing else is affected.
Requirements and licensing
Do I need to know OpenSSL?
Not at all — that is the entire point. You add domains and click a button. The tool uses the openssl.exe that ships with WampServer’s Apache under the hood.
What do I need to run it?
Windows 10 or 11, a working WampServer install, and Administrator rights (it self-elevates via UAC to write to the certificate store, hosts file and Apache config). You also need the .NET 8 runtime, unless you use the self-contained build that needs nothing pre-installed.
Is it really free?
Yes — free and open source under the MIT licence. No paid tier, no “pro” version, no catch.
Can I use it for production servers?
No. It is designed for local development. Production sites should use a public CA such as Let’s Encrypt.
Does it phone home or track me?
No. There are no servers, no accounts and no telemetry. The only network call it makes is the HTTPS check against your own localhost to verify the result.