14 DAY TRIAL // While Windows 10 users are protected by default thanks to Windows Defender integration, not the same thing can be said about those running Windows 7, where a security solution needs to be manually installed on both home and corporate products.
Security research company AV-TEST has conducted a new series of tests to determine the best Windows 7 antivirus products for corporate users, running protection, performance, and usability tests on both third-party solutions and Microsoft’s own products.
The results pretty much speak for themselves: the companies that offer the most effective antivirus products for home users lead the charts in the enterprise world as well, as Trend Micro, Kaspersky, and Bitdefender got the maximum score of 18 points.
This means Trend Micro Office Scan, Kaspersky Endpoint Security and Kaspersky Small Office Security, as well as Bitdefender Endpoint Security, all of them addressed to business users, received 6 points in each of the three tests mentioned above.
Microsoft not getting the lowest score this time
McAfee’s Endpoint Security wasn’t far either, getting 17.5 points overall due to 5.5 points in the performance tests.
Microsoft’s System Center Endpoint Protection was among the tested products with the worst scores, as it was rewarded with 15 points overall, divided as follows: 6 points for protection, 5 points for performance, and 4 points for usability.
On the other hand, the application that received the lowest score was SentinelOne’s Sentinel Agent, which received 6 points for protection, 5 points for performance, and only 3.5 points for usability, leading to a final rating of 14.5 points.
For what it’s worth, no matter how advanced these security products prove to be, upgrading from Windows 7 is a thing that all corporate users will have to do sometime in the next couple of years. Microsoft will pull support for Windows 7 in January 2020, and with Windows 10 boasting many more security features aimed at both home users and enterprises, the upgrade appears to be just a matter of time.
