Where Windows stores user certificates

The Certificates Manager MMC snap-in can list and manage certificates. It gives no indication, however, as to where the certificates are actually stored.

The certificates are not stored in files, but in the Registry, in this path under either HKLM (for the system) or HKCU (for an individual user):

\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates

EFS public keys are stored in TrustedPeople\Certificates under the above path in HKLM. EFS private keys are stored in the HKCU equivalent. Each certificate gets a subkey of Certificates named the thumbprint. The data is kept in a binary value called Blob that seems to be in the same format as a PKCS #12 file, though I have not tried to run it through a decoder.