14 DAY TRIAL // The latest series of tests performed by AV-TEST revealed that Bitdefender Internet Security, Kaspersky Lab, and Trend Micro are currently the top antivirus solutions for Windows 7 systems, and in a post today, the German institute goes into detail on the performance of all security products.
First and foremost, AV-TEST emphasizes that only 3 security solutions achieved the maximum points in protection, performance, and usability, explaining that while the three aforementioned tools topped the charts, Avast was the leading freeware choice.
AV-TEST explains that in order to determine the capabilities of security software in protection tests, the team used 15,000 already known samples of malware, and only Kaspersky and Bitdefender managed to block them all. Although Symantec, Trend Micro, and F-Secure missed 100 percent efficiency by a slight margin, they received the maximum rating.
Products from Comodo and Microsoft were the worst when it comes to protection and received only 3 and 3.5 points, respectively, for their performance.
Microsoft tops chart in false positives test
AV-TEST also points out that there were several cases of false positives and, surprisingly, solutions from Avast and Microsoft topped the charts for freeware products this time.
What’s also interesting is that, in some cases, freeware products seem to have an impact on system performance and they generally tend to slow down systems.
“While the first 9 products in this category receive 5.5 to 6 points, most of the freeware products here only achieve 3.5 to 5 points. This does not mean that many freeware applications generally slow down the PC – it is only somewhat conspicuous for this test,” AV-TEST noted, adding that Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro once again got the top spots.
Windows 7 continues to be a super popular Windows version, despite the fact that Microsoft has already launched Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, so finding an effective antivirus solution is still critical for many of the users who are yet to upgrade.
Fortunately, this should help make a decision in this regard, but as a general recommendation, not clicking on links and files coming from untrusted sources is the best way to stay away from malware.