14 DAY TRIAL // A new series of tests performed by German institute AV-TEST in September and October 2015 determined the best antivirus solution for Microsoft’s new Windows 10 operating system, and surprisingly, a free solution tops the charts.
They say freeware security software isn’t usually as good as their shareware rivals, but these tests show that, on Windows 10, this thing isn’t valid anymore, as Avira had at least similar performance to other top solutions currently on the market.
Avira’s security product scored a maximum of 6 points for protection, performance, and usability, just like Bitdefender, Kaspersky Lab, and Symantec products. Each obtained 18 points overall, thus leading the charts in a dominant manner.
Microsoft still at the bottom of the pack
F-Secure and Trend Micro came next with 6 points for protection, 5.5 points for performance, and 6 points for usability while other free security products such as AVG and Avast are behind with lower score.
AVG, for instance, received 6 points for protection, which is clearly the most important factor for the majority of users, but only 4.5 points for performance, and this means that it might slow down your PC a little bit. 6 points were awarded for usability.
AVAST, on the other hand, got only 5 points for protection, the same for performance, but received the maximum 6 points for usability.
ESET scored surprisingly bad in this series of tests, gaining 5.5 points for protection, only 3 for performance, and 6 for usability. In other words, NOD32 is still a good app for protecting your computer against malware infections, but running it 24/7 could have an impact on system performance.
As far as Microsoft’s security products are concerned, they’re again at the bottom of the pack. They’re not the last, though, as both ThreatTrack and Quick Heal performed even worse, but they received only 3.5 points for protection, 4.5 points for performance, and 6 points of usability.