A recent test of 19 antivirus programs shows that users are very well protected with almost all popular Windows 10 bouncers. Two top solutions are free, one of which is already pre-installed.
If you use a Windows computer, you should never go online without antivirus protection. The independent institute AV-Test tested 19 popular programs to see how well they perform this task. To do this, the virus monitors had to show how well they fended off threats, produced as few false alarms as possible and did not slow down computers too much. 14 test candidates got 18 out of 18 possible points, only two were not awarded as “top product”.
The winners include almost all popular paid programs, including Avira Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security, F-Secure Safe 18, Gdata Total Security, McAfee Total Protection, Norton 360 or Trend Micro Internet Security. The free, ad-financed software Avast Free Antivirus also got full marks.
However, users can also completely dispense with the use of third-party software. Because the integrated Microsoft Windows Defender is also one of the test winners with full points.
This not only has the advantage that you can save money for virus protection. In principle, any additionally installed software poses a certain risk if it is faulty. This applies in particular to guard programs, since they require very extensive authorizations for their work, which hackers may also be able to use for attacks. This happens again and again, for example “IT-daily.net” reported last May on security gaps in the Avast and AVG programs.
If you still want to install an additional virus protection, it should be a “top product”. PC Matic Application Whitelisting is not one of them because it only got 3.5 in the Usability category with many false positives and false blocks. Total AV was not recognized because it fell below the industry average for protection against so-called zero-day attacks.
(This article was first published on Monday, August 08, 2022.)
