Microsoft has made Windows Vista Security Guide 1.2 available for download at the end of the past week. According to Kelly Hengesteg, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Security & Compliance Solutions, the Redmond Company published an update to Windows Vista Security Guide 1.1 due to some problems in the previous release.

"We have identified an issue with version 1.1 of the Windows Vista Security Guide, which caused some of the group policy objects to not be created correctly. If you have downloaded version 1.1, which was available for download from December 4, 2006 through December 14, 2006, please download version 1.2," stated Hengesteg.

Bill Canning, a program manager in the Microsoft Solutions for Security group, also gave his own insight on the problem: "Please download the latest Windows Installer .MSI file to ensure you have the latest version of the Windows Vista Security Guide. The Windows Installer .MSI file for Version 1.1 of the Windows Vista Security Guide which was available for download from December 4, 2006 through December 14, 2006 did not include all of the files required by the GPOAccelerator tool to properly create the group policy objects described in the guide."

The Windows Vista Security Guide version 1.2 can be downloaded via this link. The guide delivers not only recommendations to bulletproof Windows Vista but also tools to decrease the security risks. An integer part of the WVSG 1.2 is the GPOAccelerator tool. The Solution Accelerator tool will enable the creation of the Enterprise Client (EC) environment or the Specialized Security - Limited Functionality (SSLF) environment.