What’s New

Now available for review and feedback: download Security Compliance Manager 2.5 (SCM 2.5) Beta from Microsoft Connect! In addition to updated Windows XP baselines, this beta provides the latest version of the SCM tool, along with two new Exchange Server product baselines and a total of five updated client product baselines.

These new and updated product baselines provide:

Setting severity ratings, allowing you to quickly sort, prioritize, and apply Microsoft security and compliance recommendations.
Consolidated product baselines that eliminate EC and SSLF baseline components, and make viewing, customizing, and implementing your security and compliance baselines easier than ever.
New compliance-based setting groups that allow quicker and easier compliance reporting and audit preparation when used with the GRC management solution within System Center.

Download this Solution Accelerator

The Windows XP Security Baseline is integrated with the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager tool. The previously stand-alone Windows XP Security Guide, which was later included with the Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series, is now included within the Windows XP Security Baseline. To access the guidance included in the Windows XP Security Baseline, please download the Security Compliance Manager tool.

To access this and other security baselines for Windows client and server operating systems and Microsoft applications, launch the download of the Security Compliance Manager.

Learn more about the Security Compliance Manager.

About this Solution Accelerator

The Windows XP Security Baseline is part of the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager tool. The tool is designed to provide you with an end-to-end solution to help you plan, deploy, and monitor the security baselines of computers running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (SP3) applications in your environment.

What is a security baseline?

A security baseline is a collection of configurations items for a Microsoft product that provides prescribed values to solve a specific use case or scenario. Windows client operating system security baselines provide guidance and supporting technical data required to implement an effective and efficient security infrastructure, enabling you to:

Understand threats.
Implement countermeasures.
Learn about product-specific recommendations.

This knowledge is accessed through the Security Compliance Manager tool, which gives you the ability to customize a security baseline to meet the unique requirements of your organization. The tool exports security baselines in multiple formats to help you apply the configuration and confirm the compliance level of the computers in your organization.

Windows client operating system security baselines include the following elements:

A detailed view of security vulnerabilities related to certain Windows client operating system, application, and browser settings, and the potential impact of configuring significant settings in these areas, to help you better understand how to effectively mitigate threats to your environment.
Recommended countermeasures to address such vulnerabilities, as well as the technical data required to implement and assess the state of each countermeasure that you implement.
A product-specific security guide that provides detailed instructions and recommendations to help strengthen the security of the client computers in your organization.

About the Security Compliance Manager

The Microsoft Security Compliance Manager is the next evolution of the Microsoft Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series. We’ve taken our extensive threats and countermeasures guidance and incorporated it into the tool, enabling you to assess, configure, and manage all of your organization’s security baselines in one centralized location.

The Security Compliance Manager provides centralized security baseline management features, a baseline portfolio, customization capabilities, and security baseline export flexibility to accelerate your organization’s ability to efficiently manage the security and compliance process for the most widely used Microsoft technologies.

Take advantage of the experience of Microsoft security professionals, and reduce the time and money required to harden your environment. This end-to-end Solution Accelerator is designed to help you plan, deploy, operate, and manage your security baselines for Windows client and server operating systems, and Microsoft applications. Access the complete database of Microsoft recommended security settings, customize your baselines, and then choose from multiple formats—including Desired Configuration Management (DCM) packs, Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP), XLS, or Group Policy objects (GPOs)—to export the baselines to your environment and automate the security baseline compliance verification process.

Use the Security Compliance Manager to achieve a secure, reliable, and centralized IT environment that will help you better balance your organization’s needs for security and functionality.

Included in the Download

The Microsoft Security Compliance Manager download includes the following components:

Microsoft_Security_Compliance_Manager_Setup.exe – The Microsoft Security Compliance Manager allows you to view, update, and export security baselines.
LocalGPO.msi – This tool is designed to manage local Group Policy on a computer by applying a security baseline and exporting the local Group Policy.

Once you download and install the Security Compliance Manager tool, you can view all available Microsoft product security baselines. For more information, refer to the getting started guidance in the SCM TechNet Wiki.

The .cab file for the Windows XP Security Baseline includes the following components:

Windows XP Desktop Baseline
Windows XP Domain Baseline
Windows XP Laptop Baseline
Windows XP User Baseline
Windows XP Security Guide.docx

Version History

The Microsoft Security Compliance Manager tool, released in April 2010, is the next evolution of the Microsoft Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series.

The previously stand-alone Windows XP Security Guide, which was later included with the Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series, is now included within the Windows XP Security Baseline. To access the guidance included in the Windows XP Security Baseline, download the Security Compliance Manager tool.

Related Resources

The following resources provide additional information about security topics and in-depth discussion of the concepts and security prescriptions related to the Security Compliance Manager:

Community and Feedback

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Launch the download of the Security Compliance Manager.