The Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) client is included with the Windows Vista, the Windows 7, the Windows Server 2008, and the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. If you are using Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows Server 2003 as your client operating system, a compatible version of the AD RMS client is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.

The AD RMS client can be used with the AD RMS server role included in Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 or with previous versions of RMS running on Windows Server 2003.

The AD RMS client creates the machine certificate, which is used to identify the lockbox that stores the key pair for the current user. You can verify the presence of the AD RMS client on a computer by finding the msdrm.dll file on the computer. This file is protected by Windows Resource Protection in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2, and cannot be modified except through official Microsoft updates.

Applications can use the AD RMS client to incorporate rights management features into their application. For example, Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office 2007, and Windows Mobile 6 use the AD RMS client to support the information rights management features that provide rights management for documents, e-mails, spreadsheets, and slide presentations.

This section contains the following procedures:

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