Setting the Machine-Wide Authentication Level

The authentication level tells COM the extent to which clients and servers should verify each other's identity during calls between applications. If you want to enable security for a computer, you must choose a machine-wide authentication level other than None. For overview information, see Authentication Level.

To set the machine-wide authentication level

1. In the console tree of the Component Services administrative tool, right-click the computer whose machine-wide authentication level you want to modify and then click Properties.
   
   
2. Select the Default Properties tab.
   
   
3. Ensure that Enable Distributed COM on this computer is checked.
   
   
4. In the Default Authentication Level box, select a value other than None.
   
   
5. Click OK.

The new machine-wide authentication level is available the next time an application on the computer is started. Applications that are currently running are not affected until they are restarted.