security compliance manager

Note-to-self: Security Compliance Manager 4.0 now available for download!

Sometime you get some silent signals that you have been way too busy…

Like stumbling into an announcement of a tool you evangelise…

“Security Compliance Manager 4.0 now available for download!”

Updated: 2020-12-30

SCM Baselines for Windows 8.1, IE 11 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are now live!

Source: TechNet Blogs » Microsoft Security Guidance » SCM Baselines for Windows 8.1, IE 11 and Server 2012 R2 are now live!

Today the SCM team has finally released the SCM baselines for Windows 8.1, IE 11 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

To get the updates you can open the SCM tool and select the “Download Microsoft baselines automatically” in the tool:

SCM release

Please carefully read the Release Notes for these baselines in the Attachments/Guides section as there are a couple of known issues that may affect capabilities that worked in the past, but are no longer working with SCM and other related tools.

Alternatively, you can download all the CAB files directly from the following links:

8.1 Baseline and 8.1 Attachments –

IE 11 Baseline and IE 11 Attachments

Windows Server 2012 Baseline and Windows Server 2012 Attachments

Lastly, a HUGE thank you goes to the SCM team, Aaron Margosis and Rick Munck who have put huge efforts to release these baselines.

They have also produced the SCM materials, along with a more extensive set of GPO’s and security guide here for customers to use: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/aaron_margosis/archive/2014/08/15/security-baselines-for-windows-8-1-windows-server-2012-r2-and-internet-explorer-11-final.aspx.

See also:

  • SCM Baselines for Windows 8.1, IE 11 and Server 2012 R2 are now live!
  • What’s New in Recommended Security Baseline Settings for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Internet Explorer 11
  • Changes in the Security Guidance for Windows 8.1, Server 2012 R2 and IE11 since the beta
  • Security baselines for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Internet Explorer 11 – FINAL

Note-to-self: Microsoft announced the final release of security baseline settings for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Internet Explorer 11

Source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/secguide/archive/2014/08/13/security-baselines-for-windows-8-1-windows-server-2012-r2-and-internet-explorer-11-final.aspx

Microsoft is pleased to announce the final release of security baseline settings for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Internet Explorer 11.

There are a few changes between these recommendations and the beta version we released in April. They discuss those changes in more detail in two other blog posts: one about most of the changes, and another detailed post about the issues around account lockout recommendations.