Microsoft Offers Free Tools For XP MigrationMicrosoft Offers Free Tools For XP Migration

Microsoft on Tuesday introduced a set of free software tools designed to help enterprises deploy Windows XP Professional and Office XP. Included is software for evaluating application compatibility and security.

The tools are available for download from the Microsoft Desktop Center and in the Desktop Deployment Customer Toolkit CD.

Application compatibility is one of the primary concerns of businesses thinking about deploying Windows XP, Microsoft said. These companies often have to test hundreds or thousands of applications for compatibility before deploying a new operating system.

The Microsoft Windows XP Application Compatibility Toolkit is designed to dramatically reduce time needed to test and update applications to run on Windows XP. The toolkit also is designed to assist IT administrators in optimizing applications for Windows XP.

The portal also includes the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 1.1, which scans corporate desktops for missing security updates and service packs and identifies common system misconfigurations, providing an individual XML security report for each desktop scanned.