Microsoft Defender Antivirus had highest system load impact in latest AV-Test

Modern Windows operating systems include Microsoft Defender Antivirus by default. The security component is enabled by default, but it will turn itself off for the most part if an administrator installs another security solution on the device.

The latest Windows security software test by AV-Test analyzed 18 different security products for Windows. Engineers at the institute analyzed the protective capabilities of the products, their usability and also performance.

Most products performed really well in the test. A total of six of them scored 18 points, the highest available score. Products may earn up to 6 points for each of the three test categories.

The six products that performed the best in the test are: Avast Free Antivirus, Avira Security for Windows, Bitdefender Internet Security, G DATA Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security and Trend Micro Internet Security.

Microsoft Defender Antivirus scored 17 out of 18 points. The default Windows antivirus solution got perfect scores in the protection and usability category, but the worst score in the performance category.

AV-Test writes: "The highest system load in the test was generated by Windows Defender Antivirus for consumers. As the system load is considerably higher than that of the other products, Defender lost an entire point, thus ending up at 5 out of 6 points."

Microsoft's security product performed worse than all other products of the test. There were some, security software by AhnLab, AVG, ESET, F-Secure, McAfee, Microworld and Norton, that had a "slight, yet measurable, system load", which resulted in a 5.5 out of 6 score.

AV-Test did not provide details on the load that Microsoft Defender Antivirus had on the test systems and how much worse it was in comparison to the other tested products.

For home users, it is quite difficult to compare the performance of two security products installed on a Windows device. While it may sometimes be possible through observation, e.g., when a product is causing lag on the system, it may require benchmarking tools most of the time to find out about differences.

Windows administrators who notice high system load situations on Windows devices with Microsoft Defender Security installed may install other solutions to find out if these perform better without reducing security.

Source