Microsoft Flunks Antivirus Tests. Who Aced Them?

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Paul Wagenseil

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Apr 11, 2014
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Antivirus companies submit their products for AV-TEST to evaluate. I don't believe it's based on how each product sells. You can see the full list, and the full results, here: http://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/windows-7/december-2014/
 

socalboomer

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makes me suspicious when Norton ranks so high. We've been close to taking it off our approved antivirus list (for campus resident students) for quite some time due to it being so problematic. And then seeing ESET so low. . . smells fishy. Never been a fan of av-test. My own testing has never lined up even close to their results. . .
 

johnbl

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Nov 4, 2012
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anti virus company pays AV-TEST to produce a report and may even provide the test cases . The reports are rigged (carefully selected tests). Microsoft does not pay them.

read the AV-TEST terms and conditions on their web site
 

Dilettante_II

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Jan 22, 2015
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Bit-defender is practically malware in its own right. They use deceptive registration forms so the user unknowingly agrees pay registration fees in perpetuity. You have to contact them to stop paying.
I found Bit-defender heavily lagged my system (unacceptably so). It also didn't uninstall properly - leaving an application which served as spyware to monitor your system.
 

Puiucs

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@Dilettante Bitdefender is the best antivirus you can get right now and everybody agrees. The paying problem you had does not exist. You can cancel subscriptions easily and while it's performance isn't amazing compared to the more lightweight solutions out there, you can heavily modify it's configuration to personalize it.
If you want just stick to the free version of avira. You don't seem the type who needs amazing protection.
 

dgingeri

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With the trouble I'd had with BitDefender over the last 5 years, I've already moved away from them. The latest problem I had was it would hang one core on my processor at 100% usage that hold the whole processor at max speed. It was killing my power bill. The previous incidents of identifying OS files as viruses and removing them, rendering the machine unbootable, were a significant annoyance, too.
 

DownwithEA

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I'm a bit skeptical of this review. Walk into any tech service center and ask them which antivirus program is most commonly installed on infected systems. Guarantee first words out of their mouths are McAfee, Norton & AVG. Maybe these are just more commonly installed. However, from personal experience in a tech room I can say that I didn't see one PC brought in for virus removal with Security Essentials on it. Granted this was a while ago.
 

irish_adam

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Honestly think that you could have the best AV in the world but if your one of those idiots that clicks on pop ups or opens dodgy email attachments you will still get viruses. I can honestly say that after surfing the web for the last 15 odd years i could count the amount of viruses i've had on one hand (and i've never paid for an AV). I repair computers for a living and i honestly have no idea how people rack up so many in such a short space of time no matter what AV they are using.
 

junkeymonkey

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Nov 11, 2013
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I sometimes think the ones you pay for are the ones that give/send/ make you a virus so it can show you it works well and you feel safe to keep paying them for it ..

see we stopped that be sure you send us money
 

Quixit

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Dec 22, 2014
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The only reason Norton is on this list is that it's so intrusive that it literally stops you from using your computer entirely.
 

jimmysmitty

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makes me suspicious when Norton ranks so high. We've been close to taking it off our approved antivirus list (for campus resident students) for quite some time due to it being so problematic. And then seeing ESET so low. . . smells fishy. Never been a fan of av-test. My own testing has never lined up even close to their results. . .

I would assume that they do not include issues in their testing but just controlled environment scanning, which in my experience is never indicative of the real world.

I have been using MSE as my primary AV since the first version on XP and have never gotten a virus, nor has my wifes machine and she is not nearly as tech savvy as I am.

Either way the best AV is the brains to not click on a shady link or go to shady sites.
 

palladin9479

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Yeah I don't trust AV testing sites anymore, there is simply too much financial incentive to rig the tests by carefully selecting the material to test. Most of the AV manufactures rely on fear, uncertainty and doubt to sell their product. The days of mass network infections are gone, modern OS's don't allow unsecured remote execution of code, it needs to be injected by the user first. And no AV can possibly protect a computer from an ignorant user, they will ALWAYS find a way to install that "one application" they got an email about.

So yeah the best security always boils down to the user being extremely careful about clicking "yes" on random pop-ups, and not clicking unknown links in their email. I too just run MSE ever since Trendmicro become so obnoxious that it was rendering my PC unusable.
 

spp85

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To my personnel experience Bit Defender is a pretty bad Anti virus package to deal with. It slows the whole machine to an unresponsive state. For example if you are using a brand new Core i5 after BD installed you feel like an core 2 duo at best.

I recently tried their 6 months trial in BD internet security 2015 and find it really frustratingly lagging both system and internet. That made me to uninstall the product within 2 days of installation. Even Bit Defender Internet Security 2015 is absolutely free I wont use it.
 

sosofm

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I use ESET for year and i didn't have any problem with viruses.Its fast , nonintrusive,light and easy to use. The rest is story.
Best antivirus is that what you like ,aford and don't slow your PC.
 

gregor

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BitDefender was no good for me, kept stopping responding after playing a game. Support tried to tell me it was because I had MS Family protection installed, even though it wasnt even running. To be honest if it was that easy to confuse the programme and stop it working, I'm not sure how good it could be.
Went through all their check, reinstalled it a number of times but still no good.
In the end I bought Bullguard which has been fine.
 
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