Anti-virus on Windows 8/8.1 compared

Lab tests on 25 consumer and 9 business products show how each protect against threats, affect system performance and how often they generate false positives.

Independent test lab AV-Test has completed a series of tests for anti-virus/anti-malware products on Windows 8 and 8.1.

They compared both business and consumer solutions. For each, they tested with the then-current version last November and December to increase confidence in the numbers. They compared the business solutions to Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection and the consumer solutions to Microsoft Windows Defender.

For each, AV-Test generated scores for protection, performance and usability. Each score ranges from 0 to 6 and are added to make the Total score.

Protection is defined by how well they blocked known and unknown malware. Products with a score of 6 blocked 100% of malware or very close to it. Performance is a measure of the product’s impact on the system speed, but AV-Test provides no details on how the numbers were calculated. Usability is a function of the number of false positive detections in various situations; “Usability” is perhaps not the right word for it, but it’s a valuable metric nevertheless.

Below are the scores for the business solutions tested.

Product	Protection	Performance	Usability	Total
Bitdefender Endpoint Security 5.1 & 5.3	5.5	6	6	17.5
Fortinet FortiClient 5.0	4.5	2	6	12.5
F-Secure Client Security 11.00	6	4.5	5.5	16
Kaspersky Lab Endpoint Security 10.1	6	5	6	17
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise with EPO 8.8	5	3	5.5	13.5
Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection 2012	0	5.5	6	11.5
Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 10.3	4	3	6	13
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1	5.5	3.5	6	15
Trend Micro Office Scan 10.6	6	5.5	6	17.5

The stand-out business products are from Bitdefender, Trend Micro and Kaspersky, with F-Secure not far behind. Bitdefender did not received a 100% score for detection, but it was very close. Trend Micro, Kaspersky and F-Secure fell short in system performance impact, but not by much.

Here are the consumer products:

Product	Protection	Performance	Usability	Total
AhnLab V3 Internet Security 8.0	1.5	3	5	9.5
Avast Free AntiVirus 2014	3	5.5	6	14.5
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2014	4	5.5	5.5	15
AVG Internet Security 2014	4.5	5	5.5	15
Avira Internet Security 2014	6	5.5	6	17.5
Baidu Antivirus 1.6	3.5	3	6	12.5
Bitdefender Internet Security 2014	6	6	6	18
BullGuard Internet Security 14.0	5.5	4.5	5.5	15.5
Comodo Internet Security Premium 6.3	5.5	3.5	4	13
ESET Smart Security 7.0	5.5	3	6	14.5
F-Secure Internet Security 2014	6	5.5	5	16.5
G Data InternetSecurity 2014	6	5	5	16
K7 Total Security 13.1	2.5	3.5	4.5	10.5
Kaspersky Lab Internet Security 2014	6	6	6	18
Kingsoft Antivirus 2013	3.5	0	6	9.5
McAfee Internet Security 2014	5.5	3.5	5.5	14.5
Microsoft Windows Defender 4.3	0	5	6	11
Microworld eScan internet security suite 14.0	6	3.5	5.5	15
Norman Security Suite Pro 10.1	4	2	4.5	10.5
Panda Security Cloud Antivirus FREE 2.3	6	3.5	6	15.5
Qihoo 360 Internet Security 4.2	5.5	5.5	5.5	16.5
Symantec Norton Internet Security 2014	6	3	6	15
Tencent PC Manager 8.5	2.5	5	5.5	13
ThreatTrack VIPRE Internet Security 2014	3.5	3	5.5	12
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014	6	3.5	6	15.5

Bitdefender and Kaspersky get perfect scores, followed by Avira, F-Secure, Qihoo and G Data. Many products get a 6 in usability but are otherwise unremarkable or poor, including Kingsoft which gets a 0 on performance and 3.5 on protection. Nine products got a 6 on protection, the most important category, but some of them affect system performance negatively.

The two graphs below show the percentage of malware blocked by each product in December testing.