Microsoft Defender has been compared by AV-TEST to AhnLab, AVG, ESET, F-Secure, McAfee, Microworld, Norton and even Malwarebytes. The Windows software will have disappointed in terms of performance.
AV-TEST, a company specializing in the evaluation of anti-malware solutions, has just published its report highlighting the performance of several security software. The analysis focuses on three main categories: protection, performance and usability.
Microsoft Defender against the competition: a mixed record
As far as protection is concerned, the aim here is to assess the ability of software to detect malicious samples. In this category, Microsoft Defender stood out with good results, obtaining 6 points out of 6. It was praised for its effectiveness in detecting threats, a good point.
In terms of usability, the point that assesses software ease of use and presence of false alarms, Microsoft Defender also scored 6 points out of 6. Users clearly appreciated its user-friendly interface and low false alarm rate.
But in terms of performance — which measures the impact on system resources — it’s worse. Microsoft Defender was rated the worst performer of the bunch. It scored 5 out of 6 points, indicating relatively higher resource utilization. This is more or less the same result as last year.
Anti-malware software that stood out in the AV-TEST report
Other software was also evaluated. Some have achieved good results in terms of performance and low system resource usage. These include Avast, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, Trend Micro and others, all of which received 6 out of 6 points in this category.
Other software performed well in terms of performance, but with a slight point deduction due to measurable system load. AhnLab, AVG, ESET, F-Secure, McAfee, Microworld and Norton scored 5.5 points out of 6.
Read: Antivirus: what is the best security suite?
Another software, PC Matic, had mixed results, with a disappointing performance in the usability category. It only received 3 out of 6 points due to a large number of false positives and app crashes reported by AV-TEST.
The complete results of the classification, as well as the certificates obtained by the various software, are available in The report published by AV-TEST.
