A free solution accelerator available for download straight from Microsoft is capable of sniffing out the security holes on Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and RTM computers in an IT infrastructure. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 was released at the end of June 2008, and is the evolution of the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator, and in this regard, a tool designed to evaluate infrastructures for complex migration processes including to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. However, at the same time, the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 released in June can highlight security issues on Vista machines.

"Whether you are planning to deploy Windows Vista or already did, it is important that you keep security high on your list and make sure that all of your desktops are secured. So, how do you know if your desktops have Windows Firewall settings turned off? What if some desktops do not have Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware software installed? [The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1] auto-generates a security assessment report on your existing desktops as part of the "Windows Vista hardware assessment" migration report," explained Baldwin Ng, senior product manager, Solution Accelerators Team.

[IMG=2]Via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry Service, or the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 will crawl the network and produce an evaluation of machines detected delivering a complete inventory of the hardware and software resources available on the infrastructure. The agentless toolkit will assess the computers' readiness to integrate technology such as Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization and even Hyper-V. On top of this, the tool can also offer an insight to problem areas in terms of security, through the report generated with the results of the evaluation.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 is available for download here.


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