Who’d have imagined! There were days when Microsoft antivirus products like Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender used to fail the majority of security tests.
So much so that they were mostly considered base level protection, the first line of defense.
This basically meant that third-party security programs were deemed a necessity on the Windows platform. And that is exactly what users did — they turned to a number of other popular solutions on the market to in order to keep their computers safe from malware.
However, Redmond continued to evolve its antivirus by a lot, these past few years.
And now, the core Windows 10 security module is good enough to stand tall amongst other programs, with dedicated features to block both malware and hacking attempts. And it does all this seamlessly, without demanding much user interaction.
As the images above show, the folks over at AV-TEST, an independent lab, conducted a new research to determine the best antivirus available for Windows users.
Both Windows 7 and Windows 10.
And lo and behold, Microsoft fared rather well in these tests.
No longer listed at the bottom, both Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender scored excellent points in the three categories, namely Protection, Performance and Usability. They are listed with 17.5 and 17 points respectively, out of a total of 18 possible points.
Impressive, most impressive.
These tests were conducted in January and February of this year and confirm that Microsoft antivirus and security products are now capable of offering strong protection. And the fact that they do it by playing nicely with other third-party products is an icing on a very good cake.
Good going, Microsoft.
Wonder what’s next for these programs.
