14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Defender has evolved a lot, there’s no doubt about it, but there still are lots of users out there who feel safer with third-party antivirus solutions, mostly because they are said to provide substantially better protection to Windows users.
To determine which antivirus product actually provides the best security on the market at this point, security institute AV-TEST performed a new research in March and April to test the most popular solutions at this point, including Microsoft’s very own Windows Defender. And the results are a bit surprising.
Previously, antivirus products from Kaspersky, Bitdefender, and Symantec were leading the charts, but this time only two solutions managed to score the maximum points, namely Kaspersky and Avira. Both got 6 out of 6 points in protection, performance, and usability tests for a final rating of 18 points.
Trend Microsoft, Symantec, and Bitdefender are next in charts very close to the leading positions with 17.5 points due to scoring 5.5 points in usability tests. They all got 6 points for protection and performance.
Microsoft very far behind
One particular disappointment is ESET, whose security products scored only 5.5 points for protection, 4 points for performance, and 6 points for usability. This means not only that it didn’t manage to detect all malware samples but it also slowed down the Windows 10 system much more than the applications mentioned above.
Avast’s security product received 6 points for protection, but only 4.5 points for performance. 5.5 points were offered for usability.
As far as Microsoft’s Windows Defender is concerned, it’s among the worst performing security solutions in the charts with a final rating of 15 points. It scored 4.5 points in protection tests and performance, and 6 points in usability.
The last security solution in this research is Comodo, which got 5.5, 4.5, and 5 points, respectively.
In addition to running antivirus software, Windows 10 users are also strongly recommended to keep the operating system fully up to date, as known exploits can be blocked at an OS level if Microsoft delivers patches for known vulnerabilities. This is what happened recently with the WannaCry ransomware, with Windows 10 systems not affected thanks to patches released by Microsoft in March this year.
