Outlook Express Security Alert (Certificate)

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I use Outlook Express for the email on my system, and I’m receiving regular ComputerShopper.com & Lenovo.com emails (plus some others). I am getting Security Certificate warnings for virtually every message they send (but I do not get those warnings for messages from most other senders) when I preview or open.

Since those messages are from computer-related senders, they are the last ones that I’d expect to see those warnings on.

I contacted Lenovo about the problem, but have not heard back from them.

I’d like to know what is causing those Security Certificate problems with those messages and what can be done to prevent going through View Certificate and installing a certificate for each?

Has anyone heard of similar Outlook Express Security Certificate warnings from any other senders, especially computer-related senders?

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This usually occurs when the email has links to external web sites with certificates that are not trusted.
Most email programs automatically disable external links unless you specifically allow them, to prevent you being tracked just for viewing an email.

You should not install certificates just to view web sites, only to perform some security related action, like ordering from a web site or encrypting email.

Are you able to post a screen shot of the certificate warning?

cheers, Paul

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Here is a screenshot of the Security Alert.

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That certificate looks OK, but we need the “view certificate” screen shot to be sure.

BTW, you can add the image directly to the post if you save it as a png/jpeg and use the “Insert Image” button.

cheers, Paul

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BTW, what bothered me most about this problem is that there are emails from computer-related senders causing this problem. I’d think that Lenovo, ComputerShopper.com and others would have someone on staff to check for problems such as that and fix them BEFORE they’re sent to everyone on their mailing list.
It should be noted that the emails are HTML, not plain text, but that does not excuse the problem they create, especially when other HTML emails do not cause a problem.

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Here are the additional screenshots that might help with the diagnosis.36759-Lenovo-Security-Alert-warning-View-Cert36760-Lenovo-Security-Alert-warning-View-Cert-path

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It seems that your root certificate store does not contain the GoDaddy root certificate. It’s possible it is missing several root certificates causing the errors you describe. Windows is responsible for updating the trusted store, not Outlook.
This Microsoft article shows how to update your root store.

cheers, Paul

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Because this problem cropped up suddenly and affected only certain emails, I didn’t suspect that it might be a result of the Windows Update problem that my Win2K system had.

I was getting error 0x800b0109 when trying to update Windows 2000 (It wouldn’t even check for available updates). After researching the problem, I found & installed Windows update agent 3.0 from and it fixed the Windows Update problem.

I then ran Updates, including an optional update that seemed to be for Root Certificates, and the problem seems to be fixed for the Lenovo emails, but the ComputerShopper emails (at least) still trigger the Security Alert.

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Do you get the same error for the CS emails? If so it’s back to updating root certificates.

cheers, Paul

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The Security Alerts have diminished drastically, but I’m still getting the Security Alert for the ComputerShopper.com emails. I think, however, it’s a different alert in that it says ‘The Security Certificate has expired or is not yet valid’.

I have not noticed alerts from any other senders. (The Lenovo Security Alert also seems to be fixed.)

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View the certificate from CS and check the expiry dates.

cheers, Paul

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The dates on the attached certificate look OK.

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Could be a certificate in the chain. Click the Certification Path tab.

cheers, Paul

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