14 DAY TRIAL // New research conducted by antivirus testing organization AV-TEST evaluates the performance of the most popular security products on Windows 10, with only three different suites getting the top score this time.
Specifically, Kaspersky Internet Security, McAfee Internet Security, and Symantec Norton Security each got 6 points out of the maximum of 6 for protection, performance, and usability tests, with a total of 18 points in the research.
On the other hand, a larger group of apps, including Microsoft’s very own Windows Defender, which comes pre-loaded in Windows 10, got pretty close to top performance with a final score of 17.5 points.
The lowest score this time goes to Protected.net Total AV, which received only 4 points for protection and performance and 6 points for usability.
Windows Defender performance
Windows Defender received 6 points for protection and usability, but only 5.5 points for performance, whereas Bitdefender Internet Security scored 6 points for protection and performance but lost 0.5 points in the usability tests.
The study, which comprised two different rounds, in July and August 2019, respectively, included tests for protection against 0-day malware, detection of widespread malware, performance impact (such as slowdowns generated on app load and file copying), as well as false positives.
Windows Defender, successfully detected 100 percent of the 0-day malware samples and the widespread infections, beating the industry average of 98.9% in the case of unknown threats.
On the other hand, the native Windows 10 antivirus generated a 33% slowdown for the installation of frequently-used applications on low hardware, surpassing the industry average of 28%. The same for top apps on powerful hardware, with the industry average sitting at 25%, while Windows Defender produced a 31% slowdown.
Microsoft’s Windows 10 security solution generated just one false positive of a legitimate application during a system scan, but otherwise performed flawlessly in the false warnings evaluation.
