AV-Comparatives Ranks Microsoft Security Essentials as Best-Performing Free Antivirus
PaulSpoerry | December 23, 2009
Anti-malware testing group AV-Comparatives.org not only gave Microsoft Security Essentials a top rating for malware removal, but now they’ve given it their best ranking in their performance test as well.
AV-Comparatives.org ran a series of real-world tests running through common scenarios like downloading, extracting, copying, and encoding files, installing and launching applications, and they also ran through an automated testing suite as well. Once the dust had settled, it became clear that not only is MSE one of only three products that both blocks and removes malware well, but it’s also very light on system resources.
Out of all the products tested, Microsoft Security Essentials was the best-performing free antivirus solution, and one of only two that received “very fast” on each of the real-world tests, earning it their top award: an “advanced+” ranking. We’ve been telling you for a while that you don’t need to pay for Windows security, and now with MSE ranked alongside the top paid apps in both malware removal and performance, you might want to consider making the switch.
Hit the AV-Comparatives link for the full report in PDF form, or check out the PC Mag story for the overview—if you can deal with some irritating in-text ads.
Performance Tests [AV-Comparatives]
AV-Comparatives Rates Anti-Malware Performance [PC Mag via @edbott]
via Lifehacker.
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Wow. I have to say that I’m amazed that they even thought of including any Microsoft product in their testings. Personally I would think it’s assumed that if it bears they name Microsoft, let alone then being combined with the word “security”, that it would automatically be dismissed. The fact that AV-Comparatives gave it any score other than something comparable to saying “yeah, we see you there but we’re gonna ignore you because you suck” really makes me question their testing methodology and whether they’ve been bought off to say things that simply couldn’t be further from the truth.
That’s extremely narrow minded. MS has really done an amazing job the past few years in security. IIS is one of the most secure web servers out there (and has been for years). Starting with Vista, and continued with 7, Windows has been hardened to a great degree. MOST of what is occurring in exploits these days is phishing attacks or people still using IE6. Phishing attacks are platform agnostic, they don’t care about the OS.