German test lab AV-Test found in a test of virus scanners for Windows 10, that there are hardly differences in the detection rate of malware. AV-Test tested 18 different home user security products, of which 11 were rated at “Top Product”.
The security products were rated on protection, performance and usability. An application could score 6 points for each test item, making the maximum achievable score 18 points.
Protection was tested by feeding the security products with 225 zero-day malware examples and nearly 5,600 malware examples that were discovered in the last four weeks before the tests. Zero-day malware is defined in this test as malware that has been discovered by AV-Test no later than within 24 hours before the test
The average rate of detection of zero-day malware was 99.6%. Detection rate of the test where 5,600 malware examples that were discovered in the last four weeks were tested, was 100%. In total 13 security products achieved the maximum score of 6 points on the protection tests, 5 products scored 5.5 points.
Windows Defender, the free built-in antivirus tool of Windows 10, achieved a detection rate of 100% in both tests and thus also scored the maximum 6 points.
Second part of the test involved performance of the security products. AV-Test tested the impact of the security products on the system when visiting websites, downloading and copying files and installing and running software. Eleven products scored the maximum 6 points on this test item, 5 products scored 5.5 points and only F-Secure and G-Data scored lower, they scored 5 points.
The last test item involved usability and part of that test are false positives. False positives happen when the security product detects clean files unintentionally as malware. This can have a serious impact on the system if e.g. the security product detects a system file as malware. Eight of the products scored the maximum 6 points on this test item. Comodo and PC Pitstop finished last with 4 points.
Of the 18 tested home user security products, Avira, Kaspersky Lab and McAfee scored the maximum 18 points. Eight other security products scored 17.5 points, amongst them is Windows Defender.
Security products with a score of 17.5 or higher are considered Top Product by AV-Test. This has been achieved by Ahnlab V3 Internet Security 9.0, Avast Free AntiVirus 18.3 & 18.4. AVG Internet Security 18.3 & 18.4, Avira Antivirus Pro 15.0, Bitdefender Internet Security 22.0, Kaspersky Internet Security 18.0 and 19.0, McAfee Internet Security 21.1 & 21.2, Windows Defender 4.12, eScan Internet Security Suite 14.0, Norton Security 22.14 and VIPRE AdvancedSecurity 10.1.
Last, with 15.5 points and not labelled as Top Product, are Comodo Internet Security Premium 10.2 and PC Pitstop PC Matic 3.0.
