14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s making changes to Windows 10 as it wants to ensure the operating system is safer against all types of malware, but many users still see third-party antivirus solutions as a must-have in order to keep computer threats away from their PCs.
And a new round of tests performed by German institute AV-TEST come to lend them a hand with choosing the best solutions for home users on Windows 10 devices.
And it turns out that there’s just one security solution that got the maximum number of points this time: Bitdefender Internet Security 2016. Bitdefender’s security suite obtained 6 points in all tests, namely protection, performance, and usability, managing to score better than rivals such as Kaspersky or Norton.
Solutions offered by Kaspersky, Trend Micro, and Symantec were very close with nearly perfect performance, most of them losing just 0.5 points in various tests - Kaspersky Internet Security 2016, for instance, obtained 5.5 points in performance tests.
Free antivirus protection
But for many users, it’s more important to see free security solutions performing better, and in this new round of tests, they didn’t disappoint.
Avast Free Antivirus 2016 got 6 out of 6 points for protection and usability but obtained only 4.5 points for performance. AVG Internet Security (whose scanning engine is also powering the free antivirus) received 5.5 points for protection, 5 points of performance, and 6 for usability.
Windows Defender, which is often considered the baseline of antivirus tests, received 3 points for protection, 5 points for performance, and 5.5 points for usability. This leads to a total score of 13.5 points out of a maximum of 18, and this is not at all a bad result. Windows Defender is pre-installed on all Windows 10 devices and remains active as long as there’s no other security application running on a computer. When such a solution is installed, it’s automatically turned off.
Quick Heal Total Security 17 was the worst performer in this round of tests with 3 points for protection, 2 points for performance, and 5.5 points for usability.
UPDATE: Check out the best antivirus for Windows 10 Enterprise here.
