How to Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on Windows Server?

Growing trends in cyber attacks made system administrators implement more secured communication protocols to protect their assets and network from attacks. TLS plays a vital role in the implementation stack. TLS is a critical security protocol that is used to encrypt communications between clients and servers. TLS 1.3 is the latest version of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol and offers many advantages over their previous versions. TLS 1.2 is the most widely used version of the TLS protocol, but TLS 1.3 is gaining popularity. As a system administrator, you should enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on your Windows Server to enhance the security of your infrastructure.

Why Should You Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on Windows Server?

As a windows administrator, it is not just your duty to take care the system’s health. But, it is also your responsibility to create a secure environment to protect your Windows from internal and external threats. TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 are the new and most secure transport layer security protocols. As a system administrator, you should enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on your Windows Server for the following reasons:

How to Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on Windows Server?

We have covered 3 different ways to enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on your Windows Server in this post. You can choose any one of the three ways to enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on your Windows Server depending on your technical and automation skills.

Microsoft clearly said that it supports TLS 1.3 only on Windows 10 (version 1903 later), Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, and above operating systems. No support will be provided for TLS 1.3 below Windows 10 22H2 and Windows Server 2022. You can refer to the below table that shows the Microsoft Schannel Provider support of TLS protocol versions.

Note: Windows 2019 does not support TLS 1.3.

TLS Protocols Supported by Windows Operating Systems:

Method 1 : Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 manually using Registry

Let’s begin learning how to enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 manually using Windows Registry.

Method 1 : Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 manually using Registry

Step 1. Open regedit utility

Open ‘Run‘, type ‘regedit‘ and click ‘OK‘.

Step 2. Create New Key

In Registry Editor, navigate to the path : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols
Create a new key by Right click on ‘Protocols‘ –> New –> Key

Step 3. Rename the Registry Key ‘TLS 1.2’

Rename the  registry key as ‘TLS 1.2‘.

Step 4. Create One More Registry Key ‘Client’ underneath ‘TLS 1.2’

As smiler to the above step, create another key as ‘Client‘ underneath ‘TLS 1.2‘ as shone in this picture.

Step 5. Create New Item ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’ Underneath ‘Client’, select ‘New’

Create new  item by right click on ‘Client‘, select ‘New’ –> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Step 6. Rename the Item ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’ to ‘DisabledByDefault’

Name the item as ‘DisabledBy Default’ with Hexadecimal value as ‘0’.

Step 7. Create another item, ‘Enabled’ Underneath TLS 1.2

Similarly create another item, ‘Enabled‘ with Hexadecimal value as ‘1‘.

Step 8. List of Item Created underneath ‘Client’

After registry item creations underneath ‘Client’, it looks as below.

Step 9. Create ‘Server’ and corresponding Keys as in the case of ‘Client’

Similar to above steps, create a key ‘Server’ under ‘Protocols’ and create ‘DWORD (32-bit)’ and ‘Enabled’ as shown below.
– HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server\Enabled with Hexadecimal value as ‘1’– HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server\DisabledByDefault with Hexadecimal value as ‘0’

Step 10. Enable TLS 1.3 on the Windows Server

Similar to above steps, create a ‘DWORD (32-bit)’ and ‘Enabled’ items in the below path to enable TLS 1.3
Note: TLS 1.3 is supported in Windows 11 & Windows server 2022 onwards.
– HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HTTP\Parameters\EnableHTTP3 with Hexadecimal value as ‘1’

Method 2 : Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on Windows Server using Powershell Commends

Follow this simple procedure to enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.2 using Powershell comments.

Step 1. Open Powershell as Administrator

Step 2. Run below commands to create Registry entry

TLS 1.2
- New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' -Force

- New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' –PropertyType 'DWORD' -Name 'DisabledByDefault' -Value '0'

- New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' -PropertyType 'DWORD' -Name 'Enabled' -Value '1'



- New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -Force

- New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' –PropertyType 'DWORD' -Name 'DisabledByDefault' -Value '0'

- New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' –PropertyType 'DWORD' -Name 'Enabled' -Value '1'



TLS 1.3 (Supports in Windows 11 & Windows Server 2022) 
- New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\HTTP\Parameters' -PropertyType 'DWORD' -Name 'EnableHttp3' -Value '1'

Before running the commands you can see no items were exist underneath Protocol.

After running the commands you can see there are two keys created ‘TLS 1.2’ & ‘TLS 1.3’, Underneath each protocols there are ‘Client’ &’Server’ Keys inside them ther are two items ‘DisableByDefault’ & ‘Enabled’.

Method 3: Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on Windows Server using native CMD

Follow this simple procedure to enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.2 using CMD comments.

Step 1. Open ‘Command Prompt’ as Administrator

Step 2. Run below commands to create Registry entry.

TLS 1.2
- reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client" /v DisabledByDefault /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

- reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f


- reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server" /v DisabledByDefault /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

- reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f



TLS 1.3 (Supports in Windows 11 & Windows Server 2022)
- reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\HTTP\Parameters" /v EnableHttp3 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

We hope this post will help you know how to enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 on your Windows Server to enhance the security of your infrastructure. Please share this post if you find this interesting. Visit our social media page on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram, Tumblr, Medium & Instagram, and subscribe to receive updates like this.

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