OpenSSL is a general purpose cryptography library that provides an open source implementation of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols. I have seen many people try to access the opesssl through windows command prompt and receive an error saying that – openssl is not recognized as internal or external command.
What is the error?
Platform: Windows
openssl is not recognized as an internal or external command:
‘openssl’ is not recognized as an internal or external command
Solution:
The above error displayed as the OpenSSL application is not installed in your computer system. However, OpenSSL is not shipped with any operating system, and you would need to install it externally. Follow the below sequence of steps to install and configure the OpenSSL on your computer.
1
Download openssl binary from location http://indy.fulgan.com/SSL/.
2
Once the link is opened, you can see the list of OpenSSL binaries. You would need to select the one which is the latest to download. Ensure that you have selected OpenSSL binary, either 32bit or 64bit, compatible with your computer processer architecture. The OpenSSL binary is packaged and distributed in a .zip file. E.g., OpenSSL-0.9.8s-x64_86-win64.zip
3
Once the binary is downloaded, extract the openssl .zip file in to any folder you wish. E.g. C:\openssl\
4
Watch the below video to set up the PATH environment variable.
5
Finally, open the command prompt and check the openssl command. You will be allowed to enter into openssl application.
Solution 2:
1
Download OpenSSL binary from location from google – https://code.google.com/archive/p/openssl-for-windows/downloads.
2
Install OpenSSL on your machine. Once the installation is done, you need to check that its installed location is in your %PATH%. By default, it probably won’t set directly after the install. For example, suppose OpenSSL is installed at c:\OpenSSL-Win32 then the OpenSSL binary is probably located at c:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin\openssl.exe. So your path needs to include c:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin
In this case, you would need to set the %PATH% environment variable to c:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin\ that locate the openssl.exe. The other way is to invoke the OpenSSL command by providing the absolute path c:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin\ in the command line.
This way, you can solve the issue.
– Article ends here –
If you have any questions, please feel free to share your questions or comments on the comment box below.
![VMware authorization service failed to start [solved]](https://www.troubleshootyourself.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/vmware-logo1.jpg){kind=logo}
![[Solved] Windows Explorer Context Menu Not Displayed](https://www.troubleshootyourself.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/registry-logo.png){kind=logo}
