Microsoft Defender beats out several heavyweight rivals in the latest AV-TEST ranking

AV-TEST, the IT Security research institute based in Germany, released its December 2021 best anti-virus programs assessment report for Windows 10 home users. In this report, the organization took a look at 20 different anti-malware programs from various companies and the test also included Microsoft's Windows Defender.

Just like in the October 2021 report, Windows Defender has scored very highly in this assessment. In fact, it is one of the very best available today scoring the full 18 points available. Hence it has received the "AV-TEST TOP PRODUCT" certification as it has scored higher than the 17.5 points threshold. Aside from Defender, ESET, Kaspersky, Avira, Norton, among others, have also scored full marks.

Relatively speaking, Microsoft Defender has actually done better this time around as some of its heavyweight rival programs like those from Avast, AVG, and Malwarebytes have each scored lower in one of the three categories. The categories are:

• Protection

• Performance

• Usability

However, these are still rated AV-TEST TOP PRODUCT as each of them has managed to score 17.5 points.

The images below show how each of the 20 tested anti-virus programs has scored in the three categories differentiated by shades of blue (top) and also the certification they have received (bottom):

You can find the full test report for December 2021 here.

Images: AV-TEST GmbH (Twitter) (1), (2)

Microsoft Defender beats out several heavyweight rivals in the latest AV-TEST ranking