Windows Server Security 2008 Support Services

This post provides Windows Server 2008 Security Guide. This guide provides instructions and recommendations to help strengthen the security of computers running Windows Server® 2008 that are members of an Active Directory® domain.

In addition to the guidance that the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide prescribes, this Solution Accelerator provides tools, step-by-step procedures, recommendations, and processes that significantly streamline the deployment process. This guide not only provides you with effective security setting guidance. It also provides you with a reproducible method that you can use to apply the guidance to both test and production environments.

The key tool that this Solution Accelerator provides for you is the GPOAccelerator. The tool enables you to run a script that automatically creates all the Group Policy objects (GPOs) you need to apply this security guidance. The Windows Server 2008 Security Guide Settings workbook that accompanies this guide provides another resource that you can use to compare and evaluate the Group Policy settings.

Microsoft engineering teams, consultants, support engineers, partners, and customers have reviewed and approved this prescriptive guidance to make it:
• Proven. Based on field experience.
• Authoritative. Offers the best advice available.
• Accurate. Technically validated and tested.
• Actionable. Provides the steps to success.
• Relevant. Addresses real-world security concerns.

Microsoft has published security guides for Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server. This guide references significant security enhancements in Windows Server 2008. The guide was developed and tested with computers running Windows Server 2008 joined to a domain that uses Active Directory® Domain Services (AD°DS).