Windows Defender shows improvements in AV-Test

Arif Bacchus

Windows Defender

Microsoft has raised its score in AV-Tests, bringing Windows Defender up into the middle of the pack in test score results.

New findings published by the AV-Test Institute shows more sureness in the stock Windows Defender malware protection provided by Microsoft in recent versions of Windows. Overall, the test has three categories: Threat protection, Performance, and Usability. Each area is the scored on a rating of 0 to 6, with a maximum total of 18 points, and minimum of 10 required for a certification.

Windows Defender scores have improved lately, with Windows 8 scoring a 15.5, and Windows 10 and 7 each respectively scoring 14.0. These numbers are a bit improved over the findings from 2013 where Windows 8 scored 9.5 and 11.5.

Using the overall score, Microsoft ranked 10th out of the 20 vendors on the list which includes Avast, Bitdefender, Norton, and Trend Micro. In case you’re running Windows 10 with Windows Defender, the tests reveal that Windows Defender matches the protection of Comodo and ThreatTrack.

You can view the test results for yourself, sorted by operating system, by clicking here.