Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is an easy-to-use tool designed for the IT professional that helps small- and medium-sized businesses determine their security state in accordance with Microsoft security recommendations and offers specific remediation guidance. Improve your security management process by using MBSA to detect common security misconfigurations and missing security updates on your computer systems.

MBSA 2.0

MBSA 2.0 offers an intuitive user interface and more informative dialogs compared to previous versions. Using the new Windows Update Agent and Microsoft Update catalog, MBSA 2.0 has automatically expanding product support.

Users who primarily have:

•	Windows 2000+ SP3 and later
•	Office XP+ and later
•	Exchange 2000+ and later
•	SQL Server 2000 SP4+
•	Other products supported by Microsoft Update

in their environment should switch to MBSA 2.0 today.

MBSA 2.0 is compatible with Microsoft Update (MU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) and the SMS Inventory Tool for Microsoft Update (ITMU). MBSA 2.0 offers customers improved Windows component support, expanded platform support for XP Embedded and 64-bit Windows, as well as more consistent and less complex security update management experience.

MBSA 1.2.1

MBSA 1.2.1 is the previous version of MBSA and is provided to allow customers time to migrate to the latest version of MBSA.

Users who have:

•	Office 2000
•	Exchange 5.0 and 5.5
•	Other products supported by MBSA 1.2.1 but not Microsoft Update

in their environment may need to continue to use MBSA 1.2.1 to achieve full update detection.

MBSA 1.2.1 is only compatible with Software Update Services (SUS).

Important: Microsoft is extending support for the MBSA 1.2.1 tool and updates to the MSSecure.XML catalog file beyond March 31, 2006, in order to collect customer feedback on the MBSA suite of tools and security update detection needs. A new support lifecycle end date for MBSA 1.2.1 will be updated by June 30, 2006.

Microsoft is committed to providing accurate security update detection and deployment for all Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) security updates. Please check back on this page for a link to a customer survey in the upcoming weeks to provide feedback on MBSA and your security update detection needs.

Additional Links

•	MBSA Newsgroups Server: news.microsoft.com Group: microsoft.public.security.baseline_analyzer

•	Security Update Management Tools

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