Assessment on Anything About IT

Automating CIS-CAT Pro with PowerShell

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 20:34:49 +0000

CIS-CAT stands for Center for internet Security Configuration Assessment Tool. The CIS-CAT tool is used to perform configuration and vulnerability assessments. The Pro version is only available to CIS members, however if you want to try out the software, you can download the CIS-CAT Lite version from here: https://www.cisecurity.org/introducing-cis-cat-lite/ Note that the Lite version does not include the command line interface, so you won’t be able to use the automation described in this blog post. But you’re still welcome to continue reading this blog post. An overview of the CIS-CAT Pro can be found here: https://www.cisecurity.org/cybersecurity-tools/cis-cat-pro/

How to register a custom Assessment Job within the Windows Assessment Console

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:00:26 +0000

In the Scaling And Extending Windows Assessments To Improve System Quality (Part I & II) presentation shown at the //BUILD conference in September Jason Cohen a Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft demonstrated how to create a custom Assessment job using a Ping test as example.

Excited about the idea of extending the Windows Assessment Console with self-defined tests, I have since spend quite some time reading the related documentation on MSDN. I can imagine that one day I would be able to automate a large amount of system validation and certification tests that nowadays are performed manually or with individual scripts can be fully integrated into the Assessment Console that not only takes care of the automation but also provides a nice reporting interface.

Windows 8 ADK Assessments OS and Architecture Support Overview

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:11:49 +0000

Along with Windows 8 Microsoft also provides a new tool for System Builders and IT Professionals called the Windows Assessment Toolkit. The Windows Assessment Toolkit allows to determine the quality of a running operating system or a set of components with regard to performance, reliability, and functionality.

Now since I’m sure Windows 7 will be around for a while, I wondered whether some of these Assessments would also run Windows 7 so I started reviewing each Job and Individual Assessment listed within the Assessment Console. My findings are listed below.I have also indicated whether the Assessment is designed to run on the x86,x64 and/or ARM architecture.

Performing a Windows Performance Assessment with the Windows ADK

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:43:46 +0000

By now most of you have probably looked at the Windows 8 client or server preview build and unfortunately the most attention is given to the new Metro look, but hey there’s more than that coming, in fact there’s some awesome stuff coming I’d like you to know about. With Windows Vista and Windows 7 Microsoft also released the Windows Automated Installation Kit known as WAIK. For Windows 8 this is now being rebranded into Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit in short ADK. Now don’t get confused by the word Assessment here as it has nothing to do with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) that is used to assess your current infrastructure.