14 DAY TRIAL // There was a time when third-party antivirus protection was absolutely needed in Windows, but it turns out that Microsoft has improved its very own solution to a level that makes such applications unnecessary in the latest iteration of the operating system.
Windows Defender, which comes pre-installed and enabled by default in both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, performs significantly better in antivirus tests than it did a couple of years ago and is now achieving better results than well-known security suites.
The latest round of tests performed by German institute AV-TEST shows that Windows Defender improved on both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, and although it’s still not among the leaders, it’s not the last in the charts either.
Maximum points for usability
As far as Windows 8.1 is concerned, Windows Defender received 4.5 points (out of 6) for protection and performance, and 6 points for usability. This isn’t the best score, but Windows Defender has anyway managed to detect most of the threats, with only one solution actually blocking all malware and getting the maximum score – Kaspersky Antivirus.
The good thing is that Windows Defender is not the last security app anymore, as both Cylance and Seqrite, which are currently installed only on a small percentage of computers, achieved a lower score.
On Windows 10, however, Windows Defender really exceeded expectations. Microsoft’s default Windows antivirus received 4.5 points for protection, 5 points for performance, and 6 points for usability, ranking better than highly-praised security software such as F-Secure, Panda Security, ESET, and Comodo.
Certainly, there’s still room to improve, but Windows Defender is developing quite nicely and Microsoft is very keen on continuing these updates for even better security in Windows.
On the other hand, keep in mind that neither Windows Defender nor third-party antivirus software is 100 percent effective, so unless you really think twice before clicking suspicious links and downloading files coming from unknown sources, your computer could still get infected with malware.