Microsoft has just announced the release of version 2.5 of its Security Compliance Manager, following the availability of version 2 back in October.

Coming from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team, SCM has been released as a free tool for customers to take advantage of, when it comes to configuring and managing their computers, data centers, or private cloud, through the Group Policy and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.

The new version of the utility arrives with support for Windows 7 SP1, Windows Vista SP2, Windows XP SP3, Office 2010 SP1, and Internet Explorer 8, which were available in version 2 as well, and with added support for Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010.

“Updated configuration baselines now include Windows 7 SP1, Windows Vista SP2, Windows XP SP3, Microsoft Office 2010 SP1, and Internet Explorer 8,” Microsoft’s Stephen L Rose explains in a recent blog post.

The new version of SCM comes with ready-to-deploy policies and DCM configuration packs that have been thoroughly tested and which benefit from full support.

The product baselines have been built on Microsoft security guide recommendations and take advantage of industry best practices. Thus, customers will be able to manage configuration drift, to reduce security threats, and to address compliance requirements too.

Some of the main features of the Security Compliance Manager 2.5 include:

Integration with the System Center 2012 IT GRC Process Pack for Service Manager—Beta: Product configurations are integrated into the IT GRC Process Management Packs to provide oversight and reporting of your compliance activities.

Gold master support: Import and take advantage of your existing Group Policy or create a snapshot of a reference machine to kick-start your project.

Configure stand-alone machines: Deploy your configurations to non-domain joined computers using the new GPO Pack feature.

Updated security guides: Take advantage of the deep security expertise and best practices in the updated security guides, and the attack surface reference workbooks to help reduce the security risks that you consider to be the most important.

Compare against industry best practices: Analyze your configurations against prebuilt baselines for the latest versions of Windows client and server operating systems, Microsoft Office applications, and Internet Explorer.

The Security Compliance Manager 2.5 (SCM 2.5) was made available in Beta. Additional details on the product can be found on Microsoft’s website.

To download the new beta version of SCM 2.5, users should head to this page on Softpedia.