News

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 Released

Microsoft last week released the next version of a free tool that provides upgrade advice for those using the company's flagship software products.

The tool, Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 (MAP 5), is designed to discover assets across both Windows and Linux environments. It runs without agents in an IT environment, producing reports in Word and Excel formats. The reports provide advice on any needed operating system, software, driver and hardware upgrades when moving up the Microsoft stack.

MAP 5, which is part of Microsoft's "solution accelerators" series of free tools, can help plan upgrades for the following Microsoft software: Windows Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, SQL Server and System Center Configuration Manager. It also helps with planning migrations to Office 2010. If the underlying hardware doesn't support an upgrade, the details will be described in MAP 5's reports.

The tool will discover LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) stacks, as well as Windows stacks. For instance, it provides an assessment for moving from Windows 2000, which no longer gets security updates as of July 13. MAP 5 can also track virtualized server infrastructure.

MAP 5 taps into virtualized servers using Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor but also VMware virtualization products, such as VMware ESX, VMware ESXi and VMware Server. A Microsoft blog points out that MAP 5 "identifies already-virtualized servers running under VMware that can be managed with the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager platform, or be migrated to the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor."

MAP 5 assesses devices installed on a computer and generates a report on the availability of drivers needed for a migration. This feature is designed to work when moving to "Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and SQL Server 2008 R2," according to Microsoft's blog.

Microsoft earlier announced that MAP 5 would be demonstrated on the last day at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, which concludes today in Washington, D.C. The main point, according to Joe Matz, corporate vice president of worldwide licensing and pricing at Microsoft, is that customers and partners can use MAP 5 to get reports on Microsoft's client access licensing (CAL), as well as the actual use of Microsoft's products. MAP 5 includes a new "software usage tracker" tool that's designed to help manage those licenses.

"With the new Software Usage Tracker, partners can help their customers understand their CAL license positions and forecast their IT requirements more accurately than ever before," said Matz in a prepared statement. "This new software usage tracker feature of MAP will make it much easier for customers to track and manage licenses in their IT environment."

Microsoft issued documentation on the software usage tracker tool as well as a "Getting Started" guide for MAP 5. The two guides and the MAP 5 application can both be downloaded here.

Microsoft's blog also provides links to six videos that illustrate how to use the MAP 5 toolkit.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

  • Microsoft Offers Support Extensions for Exchange 2016 and 2019

    Microsoft has introduced a paid Extended Security Update (ESU) program for on-premises Exchange Server 2016 and 2019, offering a crucial safety cushion as both versions near their Oct. 14, 2025 end-of-support date.

  • An image of planes flying around a globe

    2025 Microsoft Conference Calendar: For Partners, IT Pros and Developers

    Here's your guide to all the IT training sessions, partner meet-ups and annual Microsoft conferences you won't want to miss.

  • Notebook

    Microsoft Centers AI, Security and Partner Dogfooding at MCAPS

    Microsoft's second annual MCAPS for Partners event took place Tuesday, delivering a volley of updates and directives for its partners for fiscal 2026.

  • Microsoft Layoffs: AI Is the Obvious Elephant in the Room

    As Microsoft doubles down on an $80 billion bet on AI this fiscal year, its workforce reductions are drawing scrutiny over whether AI's ascent is quietly reshaping its human capital strategy, even as official messaging avoids drawing a direct line.