During installation, a set of standard security settings is applied to the system: these settings are known as a security template. To get a detailed analysis of the security settings on your machine, open the MMC and select Add/Remove Snap In from the Console Menu. Click on the Add button, and select the Security Configuration and Analysis , and Security Templates snap-ins.

If you view the Security Templates option, you will see a list of the basic security templates that are available to your system. You can view the security settings that each individual template applies by clicking on the plus sign next to each template. The basicwk template is the default workstation security template, the hisecws template provides higher security workstation settings while the compatws template provides maximum compatibility for non-Windows 2000 certified applications.

The template named Setup Security is the default setup template, by double-clicking on this you can see a list of the security settings that this template applies under each section of the system, i.e. Account Policies, Local Policies, Event Log, Restricted Groups, System Services, Registry and File System. Double clicking on each individual item will give you more detailed information on that particular setting. For example under the default Setup Security template, if you look under Account Policies, then Password Policy you will see the security setting for the system passwords.

To view the settings that are currently applied to your machine, right click on Security Configuration and Analysis and select Analyse Computer Now. To apply a different template, right-click on Security Configuration and Analysis and select Import Template. You can then choose from the selection of standard templates. You can also modify an existing template to your chosen settings, then choose Export Template and save it as a new template.