40 modules · all free on one machine

Everything WinSentinel checks

WinSentinel runs 40 security audit modules against a Windows machine — real Windows APIs and registry reads, not screenshots from a blog post. Every finding maps to a concrete setting, service, or key you can inspect yourself. The full set runs on a single machine for free, with no license gate.

pwsh — winsentinel
PS> winsentinel --score

Scanning 40 modules…
  ✓ Firewall              OK
  ✓ Encryption            OK
  ✓ Network               1 critical
  ✓ Identity & Credential  2 warnings
  ✓ Event Logs            OKSecurity score: 78 / 100

Identity & access

4 modules

Who can log in, who is an admin, and how credentials are protected.

Account Audit

Accounts

Checks local user accounts, admin membership, password policies, and guest account status.

Identity & Credential Audit

Identity

Audits local admin sprawl, stale accounts, password-never-expires flags, LAPS deployment status, cached credential exposure, LSA Protection (RunAsPPL), WDigest cleartext credential caching, LM/NTLM authentication level (LmCompatibilityLevel, CIS L1 2.3.11.7), and Credential Guard.

Credential Exposure Audit

Credentials

Scans for stored credentials, exposed secrets, and credential storage misconfigurations.

Group Policy Security Audit

Group Policy

Checks security-relevant Group Policy settings including account lockout, NTLM restrictions, audit policy, credential protection, SMB signing, and application whitelisting configuration.

System hardening

8 modules

Core OS posture: the settings attackers rely on you leaving at default.

System Audit

System

Checks OS version, Secure Boot, BitLocker, UAC level, and RDP configuration.

Registry Security Audit

Registry

Checks registry-based security policies including UAC, Remote Desktop, credential storage, LSASS protection, scripting hosts, and persistence mechanisms.

Defender Audit

Defender

Checks Windows Defender status, real-time protection, and antivirus definition freshness.

Update Audit

Updates

Checks Windows Update status, pending updates, and last install date.

Firewall Audit

Firewall

Checks Windows Firewall profile states (Domain/Private/Public), per-profile dropped-packet logging (CIS L1), the default inbound policy, the inbound allow-rule surface, and over-permissive wide-open inbound rules that let any program accept connections from any address on any port.

User Account Control (UAC) Hardening Audit

User Account Control

Checks UAC enablement, the admin elevation-prompt behaviour, secure-desktop prompting, Admin Approval Mode for the built-in Administrator, installer detection, and the remote UAC token-filtering override (Pass-the-Hash enabler) against CIS Windows L1.

Application Control (AppLocker/WDAC) Audit

Application Control

Checks application allowlisting - AppLocker rule collections and enforcement (Exe/Msi/Script/Dll/Appx), the Application Identity service, WDAC/Code Integrity policy, and Smart App Control - against Essential 8 #1 and CIS Windows L1.

Exploit Mitigation Audit

Exploit Mitigations

Checks system-wide exploit mitigations - SEHOP (exception-chain validation), mandatory image relocation (ASLR / MoveImages), the machine-wide process MitigationOptions policy, and the DEP/NX boot policy - all foundational memory-corruption defenses on a single machine.

Network & remote access

6 modules

Your exposed attack surface: open ports, shares, and remote entry points.

Network Audit

Network

Checks open ports, listening services, SMB/RDP exposure, SMB signing and encryption (EncryptData) enforcement, IPv6, Wi-Fi security, network profile, LLMNR/NetBIOS/WPAD/mDNS, ICMP redirect acceptance, IPv4 source routing, and ARP anomalies.

DNS Security Audit

DNS

Checks DNS server configuration, DNS-over-HTTPS status, LLMNR/NetBIOS exposure, hosts file integrity, and cache settings.

SMB & Network Share Security Audit

SMB

Checks SMB protocol versions, server- and client-side signing enforcement (NTLM relay exposure), share permissions, null session access, encryption status, and hidden share exposure.

Remote Access Security Audit

Remote Access

Checks RDP settings (NLA, encryption, TLS layer, device redirection for drives/clipboard/printers/COM-LPT/Plug-and-Play, session shadowing, and password prompt on connect), SSH exposure (password auth, root login, TCP port forwarding and GatewayPorts tunneling/pivot exposure), third-party remote tools, WinRM hardening (unencrypted traffic, Basic auth, CredSSP credential delegation, wildcard TrustedHosts, unrestricted listeners), Remote Registry, and Remote Assistance for security risks.

WiFi Security Audit

WiFi

Checks saved WiFi profiles for weak encryption, auto-connect risks, password exposure, MAC randomization, and network privacy settings.

Bluetooth Security Audit

Bluetooth

Checks Bluetooth radio state, discoverability, paired device trust, exposed services, authentication settings, and legacy pairing risks.

Applications & processes

10 modules

What is running, what loaded it, and whether any of it is suspicious.

Process Audit

Processes

Checks running processes for unsigned executables, suspicious locations, and known risks.

Process Lineage Audit

Processes

Analyzes parent-child process relationships to detect suspicious execution chains, LOLBin abuse, and living-off-the-land techniques.

Windows Service Security Audit

Services

Checks Windows services for unquoted paths, excessive privileges, suspicious binaries, disabled security services, and configuration risks.

Scheduled Task Security Audit

Scheduled Tasks

Checks scheduled tasks for suspicious executables, elevated privileges, persistence mechanisms, encoded commands, and missing binaries.

Startup Audit

Startup

Checks startup items, scheduled tasks, and registry run keys for persistence mechanisms.

Software Inventory Audit

Software

Scans installed programs for unsigned executables, outdated software, suspicious install locations, and potentially unwanted programs.

App Security Audit

Applications

Detects outdated, end-of-life, and insecure software by scanning installed programs against known-safe minimum versions, flagging EOL products, suspicious installs, duplicate x86/x64 installations, MSIX/AppX sideloading & developer-mode posture, and installed remote-access/RMM tools (AnyDesk, TeamViewer, ScreenConnect, RustDesk, ...) that are a common attacker foothold (MITRE ATT&CK T1219).

Browser Audit

Browser

Checks installed browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox), versions, extensions, saved passwords, auto-update, Safe Browsing, SmartScreen, and security settings.

Driver Security Audit

Drivers

Checks loaded drivers for unsigned binaries, known vulnerable driver hashes (BYOVD), suspicious load paths, revoked certificates, and driver age risks.

PowerShell Security Audit

PowerShell

Checks PowerShell execution policy, script block/module logging, transcription, language mode, the legacy v2 engine, AMSI status (including the AmsiEnable=0 registry kill switch), and WinRM remoting exposure (unencrypted transport, Basic and CredSSP authentication). Scans profile.ps1 scripts for tampering: download cradles, AMSI bypasses, WMI event-subscription and scheduled-task persistence, Mimikatz credential dumping, and mshta/regsvr32/rundll32 LOLBin execution. Flags the persisted __PSLockdownPolicy environment variable, a Constrained Language Mode bypass that forces FullLanguage ahead of WDAC/AppLocker enforcement (MITRE T1562.001).

Data protection

5 modules

Encryption at rest, certificate hygiene, backups, and removable media.

Encryption Audit

Encryption

Checks BitLocker status, TPM availability, EFS usage, certificate store health, TLS/SSL configuration, Credential Guard, DPAPI protection, and Kernel DMA Protection (blocks drive-by DMA / evil-maid attacks from malicious PCIe / Thunderbolt / USB4 peripherals), and Diffie-Hellman key-exchange strength (flags weak <2048-bit DH primes vulnerable to Logjam).

Certificate Audit

Certificates

Checks Windows certificate stores for expired, weak, or untrusted certificates.

Backup Security Audit

Backup

Checks Volume Shadow Copy, System Restore, File History, backup recency, and ransomware resilience posture.

USB & Removable Media Audit

USB

Checks USB device history, autorun/autoplay settings, BitLocker-to-Go coverage, USB write-protect policies, and WPD/MTP portable-device restrictions (phones, cameras, media players that transfer files outside USBSTOR) for removable storage.

Privacy Audit

Privacy

Checks telemetry level, location tracking, advertising ID, diagnostic data, clipboard sync, and activity history.

Detection & forensics

7 modules

Evidence of compromise and the virtualization layers attackers hide in.

Event Log Analysis

Event Logs

Analyzes Windows Event Logs for failed logins, successful remote logons from external IPs (exposed RDP/network), account lockouts, privilege escalation, suspicious PowerShell, audit policy gaps, service installations, log tampering, and Defender events.

Virtualization Security Audit

Virtualization

Checks Hyper-V, WSL, Windows Sandbox, Docker, and virtualization-based security features for misconfigurations and exposure risks.

Environment Variable Security Audit

Environment

Checks PATH hijacking risks, secrets in environment variables, proxy configuration, and dangerous PATHEXT/TEMP settings.

Windows Error Reporting Exposure Audit

Error Reporting

Checks Windows Error Reporting upload posture (additional in-memory data, automatic consent level), local crash-dump writing (WER LocalDumps and full-dump type), and whether WER is disabled - all data exposure / credential-harvesting surfaces on a single machine.

Time Synchronization Audit

Time Synchronization

Checks single-machine Windows time-synchronization security - the Windows Time service (W32Time) state, the sync source type (NTP / NT5DS / NoSync), the NTP peer relative to the machine’s domain role, and whether clock phase-correction caps are bounded - because accurate time underpins Kerberos auth, certificate validity, and log correlation.

Interactive Logon Audit

Interactive Logon

Checks single-machine Windows interactive-logon policy hardening - whether a pre-logon legal-notice banner is configured (LegalNoticeCaption / LegalNoticeText) and, when smart-card logon is in use, whether removing the card locks or logs off the session (ScRemoveOption) - CIS L1 interactive-logon controls.

Automatic Sign-On Audit

Automatic Sign-On

Checks single-machine Windows Automatic Restart Sign-On (ARSO) and sign-in-screen hardening - whether ARSO is disabled (DisableAutomaticRestartSignOn) so the machine does not silently re-establish the last user’s session after an update reboot, and whether the sign-in screen is blocked from displaying account details (BlockUserFromShowingAccountDetailsOnSignin) - CIS L1 interactive-logon controls.

All 40 modules are free

There is no “lite” tier. Every module on this page runs on your machine for free, forever — along with the real-time monitor, scheduled scans, one-click fixes, score history, and PDF/HTML/SARIF export. WinSentinel Pro does not add more checks; it takes these same agents and gives an organisation a control plane — run every module across a whole fleet from one place, with drift alerts, compliance rollups, and RBAC.

Run all 40 in one line

WinSentinel ships as a .NET global tool. Audit your machine in under a minute.

$ dotnet tool install --global WinSentinel.Cli