[How To] Configure TLS Settings In Windows 10

For communication securities, Windows uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols. With the help of TLS standard level authentication protocols, your Windows system can securely communicate to Internet websites. You can learn more and in detail about TLS on Wikipedia. Mainly there are 3 TLS protocol versions Windows have at the moment. These are TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 versions.

You can enable or disable either of these TLS protocol versions as per your requirement. There are two ways, in which you can configure TLS protocol settings on your Windows 10. Both ways are mentioned below, try them as per your convenience,

How To Configure TLS Settings In Windows 10

WAY 1 – Via Internet Properties

1. Press  + R and type inetcpl.cpl in the Run dialog box, to open Internet Properties.

2. In Internet Properties window, switch to Advanced tab. Under Settings, scroll to Security heading. Beneath it, you’ll find Use TLS 1.0, Use TLS 1.1, Use TLS 1.2 options. You can enable/disable these options to allow/prevent corresponding TLS protocol.

3. Once you’re done with your selection, click Apply followed by OK to save your settings.

Now let us see, how to use registry to configure TLS settings on your Windows 10.

WAY 2 – Via Registry

1. Press + R and put regedit in Run dialog box to open Registry Editor (if you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, then click here). Click OK.

2. In left pane of Registry Editor window, navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols

3. Right click Protocols registry key, select New > Key. Name the newly created sub-key as TLS 1.0. Similarly create two sub-keys to TLS 1.0 registry key and name them as Server and Client. Now in the right pane of Client registry key (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client), right click and select New > DWORD Value. Name the newly created registry DWORD (REG_DWORD) as Enabled. Double click on this DWORD to modify its Value data:

4. Finally, set the Value data to 1 to enable TLS 1.0 protocol. Click OK.  If you want to allow TLS 1.0 to server side as well, create Enabled registry DWORD and set it to 1, for Server registry key (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client) as well.

5. You can follow similar way for other TLS protocols such as TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 versions. Create TLS 1.1, TLS 1.2 registry sub-keys to Protocols registry key, and then create Client, Server specific registry sub-keys and then add Enabled DWORD to control the corresponding TLS version. Once you’re done, close Registry Editor and make sure to reboot the machine to make changes effective.

In this way, you can configure to TLS settings in Windows 10.

That’s it!