What is the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA)?

A. Microsoft has released MBSA, a tool that analyzes a system for information related to

You can use MBSA to run checks against local or remote machines. The tool runs only on Windows .NET Server, Windows XP, and Windows 2000-based systems. However, you can use the tool to scan remote computers that run Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 (SP4) or later.

For more information about MBSA, visit Microsoft's Web site. To download MBSA, visit Microsoft's download Web site.

After you download the tool, run the mbsasetup.msi file to install MBSA. You can run the tool in a graphical mode by executing the MBSA shortcut from the Start menu, or you can type

 mbsacli.exe 

from the command prompt. (Windows doesn't add the MBSA program to the PATH variable by default, so you must either navigate to the %programfiles%microsoft baseline security analyzer folder or add this folder to your PATH statement.

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