wwHttp and TLS 1.2 Support

TLS is the encryption protocols used for https:// connections on the Web in general. TLS is implemented by Windows as part of the Windows Security Protocols stack. https:// is required by many services that your application might be interacting with such as making HTTP calls to a Credit Card Processor, Mail Delivery Service or some other online API that your application interacts with.

TLS 1.2 is the current version of TLS and is required by many secure applications like banks and credit card processors.

Unfortunately not all versions of Windows support this version of TLS 1.2 natively.

Windows and TLS 1.2

TLS 1.2 is relatively new and old versions of Windows didn't have native support for TLS 1.2. Here's a rundown of how TLS 1.2 is supported in Windows versions:

Built-in Support for TLS 1.2

• Windows 8.1, Windows 10 or later
• Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 2016 or later

These versions of Windows just work out of box with TLS 1.2 - no changes are required and it just works.

Configurable Support for TLS 1.2

• Windows 8
• Windows 7
• Windows Server 2012, 2008 R2

These versions can support TLS 1.2 via registry settings (for machine wide settings) or Internet Explorer Configuration of Protocols for IE and WinHttp/WinInet functionality. For more info on how to enable TLS 1.2 see below.

No Support for TLS 1.2

• Windows Vista
• Windows Xp
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2008

These older versions of Windows don't have support TLS 1.2 at all and don't have any way to make it work outside of using applications that don't use the Windows Protocols Stack.

This also affects the wwHttp class which runs through WinInet in Web Connection or the Client Tools.

More Info in Blog Post

There's a lot more detail on what works and what doesn't and how to configure those versions of Windows that can be configured to use TLS 1.2 in this blog post:

• Web Connection and TLS 1.2