| Platform SDK: Logon Authentication |
Starting with Windows 2000, both the client-side and the server-side portions of Schannel make use of Microsoft® CryptoAPI for cryptographic operations.
Client and server applications use CryptoAPI functions and structures for storing their public/private keys, allowing them to be managed in a standard way. Also, this allows independent software vendors to plug in their own CSPs in place of Microsoft CSPs so that server applications such as IIS can take advantage of hardware accelerators with no code changes required other than attaching a new CSP.