Here Are the Apps Offering the Best Virus Protection for Windows 8.1

Is Kaspersky Internet Security the "best" security product for Windows?

  • Yes

    Votes: 11 25.6%
  • No

    Votes: 32 74.4%

  • Total voters
    43

Jack

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If you’re still on Windows 8.1 and not planning to upgrade to Windows 10 anytime soon, a recent research conducted by AV-TEST could come in very handy, as it determines the best antivirus solution for this older version of the Windows operating system.

First and foremost, here’s the surprising bit: only one antivirus received the maximum score, although overall, three of them got the AV-TEST certificate. But in the end, just one performed flawlessly in protection, performance, and usability tests.

Its name is Kaspersky Internet Security and it managed to achieve a maximum score of 6 out of 6 points for all three tests to obtain a final score of 18 points.

here-are-the-apps-offering-the-best-virus-protection-for-windows-8-1-511950-2.jpg
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The rest of the pack
Bitdefender Internet Security, which also received the institute’s certification, got 17.5 points, as it only scored 5.5 points in protection tests and 6 for performance and usability. This is a little bit surprising given that Bitdefender has been one of the leading companies in the security field for so long, but even so, it continues to offer almost flawless results on Windows 8.1.

Trend Micro’s Internet Security also achieved the 17.5 points, but on the other hand, it lost ground in performance tests. The app received 6 points for protection and usability, but 5.5 points for performance.

Microsoft’s Windows Defender does not provide the worst protection, as so many people expected, as it received a total score of 15 points, with 4.6 points for protection and performance, as well as 6 points for usability.

The lowest score was obtained by Comodo Internet Security Premium – 12.5 points, as its performance was disappointing in protection tests, getting only 3 points. It also received 4.5 points for performance and points for usability.

Read more: Here Are the Apps Offering the Best Virus Protection for Windows 8.1
 

kev216

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Again we need many buckets of salt for these AV-test results.
The only thing that matters is the first column. And if you look at that, there are (except from 2 or 3) not that big gaps between the results.
Also if you change certain settings of a product it can be even get higher results than shown here, but that said, like always no surprises. The big guys are on top as they should.
However, I don't like the fact that they make certain products look like they are really bad compared to others. For example Bitdefender has 17.5/18 and Panda 13.5/18. It looks like Panda is a lot worse, but if you look at protection, it's 6 versus 5.5, which is quite close. I don't know where their performance numbers come from because Panda is the lighest AV I've ever seen and they give it only 2.5, while Bitdefener needs far more resources and they get a 5.5. I can be wrong of course, but isn't it notable that the big companies that probably have the most influence in this test (and offer some more money maybe) get top results on all 3 categories and others are given less points. Kaspersky is really good, don't get me wrong but 6 on all 3? No AV is perfect, not? Kaspersky is really using more resources than Panda or Norton... Also the usability points are totally not objective.
In that respect these overall points (which will only be looked at by most people) are totally not representative.
 

Exterminator

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I voted No in the poll.
I am a Kaspersky user however I do not know if their is a "best security product for Windows".
Aside from Quick Heal & Comodo most all are close to each other.
With Microsoft not far behind,especially in Windows 10,some might argue that the OS built in security is the best option.
As always this is subjective and the user must not rely on these tests to select a security program.

Conversly here is the test for the best Windows 10 AV for business users
Tests Reveal the Best Antivirus for Windows 10
tests-reveal-the-best-antivirus-for-windows-10-511948-2.jpg tests-reveal-the-best-antivirus-for-windows-10-511948-3.jpg

The point about whether or not a AV is needed with Windows 10,especially in a business setting, is interesting as it is pointed out that almost all businesses rely on third party security options.
 

roger_m

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I don't get the Panda scores either. I find when I install Bitdefender or Trend I see high resource usage.
Trend often does well in performance tests, but I find it causes a big drop in system performance. I even sometimes replace Trend products with a free antivirus, when I see that it is causing noticable slowdonws on customer's computers. In the past I've seen slowdowns with Bitdefender as well, although not as much as with Trend. I have not spent enought time using Panda products to commnet on performance.

Also, I don't agree with the 3.5 performance score for Avast, as from my testing, it's one of the lightest antiviruses there is (and much lighter than Windows Defender which got a btter performance score). When it detected malware and quarantined files, I found it was slowing down my computer, but the rest of the the time the impact was minimal.

Of course the system impact of an antivirus can vary greatly from one computer to the next, and tests like this provide a good example of that.
 

Evjl's Rain

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Trend often does well in performance tests, but I find it causes a big drop in system performance. I even sometimes replace Trend products with a free antivirus, when I see that it is causing noticable slowdonws on customer's computers. In the past I've seen slowdowns with Bitdefender as well, although not as much as with Trend. I have not spent enought time using Panda products to commnet on performance.

Also, I don't agree with the 3.5 performance score for Avast, as from my testing, it's one of the lightest antiviruses there is (and much lighter than Windows Defender which got a btter performance score). When it detected malware and quarantined files, I found it was slowing down my computer, but the rest of the the time the impact was minimal.

Of course the system impact of an antivirus can vary greatly from one computer to the next, and tests like this provide a good example of that.
avast is one of the lightest, I completely agree
I think they just installed avast using the default configurations including craps. I have seen those craps significantly decreased system performance reported by many people and also caused unexplainably high CPU and disk usage. With minimal setup, avast is extremely light
avast in the first week can be slow due to the process of caching, after this period, it's much lighter => they may not consider this
 
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M

MalwareBlockerYT

I don't trust any of these tests since the samples they use seems to allow some AVs to get 100% which never happens...

Emsisoft is better than Kaspersky in my opinion & so is Bitdefender:

1) Emsisoft
2) Bitdefender
3) Kaspersky

AV-Test in my opinion should not be trusted & neither should any single AV Testing company - yes they can perform more tests than standard users like myself can in a Youtube video but their results always seem false - lots of the AVs get 100% in tests, some are clearly favoured above others even if they are worse & it's pretty obvious that these testing companies do this.

Emsisoft gets beaten by a lot of "worse" AVs for not just protection but everything! This simply doesn't make any sense since Emsisoft is one of the best AVs around & they are saying that it's in the middle.
 
5

509322

These published tests would be OK if they generated consistent results from test lab to test lab, but they don't.

Compare published results from AV Bulletin, AV Comparatives, AV Test, AVLab, Dennis Technology, IPSC, MRG Effitas, etc and you will find two things:
  1. Only general trends that are in agreement from test lab to test lab
  2. In more than a few instances, contradictory test results for the same product from test lab to test lab
I've found testing discrepancies, contacted the test lab to report it, and then the lab staff didn't want to discuss what they did wrong.

Such lab tests should be one thing considered among a whole range of other factors.
 

Handsome Recluse

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Trend often does well in performance tests, but I find it causes a big drop in system performance. I even sometimes replace Trend products with a free antivirus, when I see that it is causing noticable slowdonws on customer's computers. In the past I've seen slowdowns with Bitdefender as well, although not as much as with Trend. I have not spent enought time using Panda products to commnet on performance.

Also, I don't agree with the 3.5 performance score for Avast, as from my testing, it's one of the lightest antiviruses there is (and much lighter than Windows Defender which got a btter performance score). When it detected malware and quarantined files, I found it was slowing down my computer, but the rest of the the time the impact was minimal.
What do you do with your computer? When do you notice slowdowns? Maybe their methodologies aren't normal usage especially since the above post discussed inconsistencies among test labs.
 

roger_m

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I don't know where their performance numbers come from because Panda is the lighest AV I've ever seen and they give it only 2.5, while Bitdefener needs far more resources and they get a 5.5.
I'm trying Panda Internet Security at the moment, and so far it has been extremely light. I have only been using it for a few hours so far, which is not long enough to get a accurate idea of system impact, but does give some indication. When I open one of my downloads folders, with hundreds of installers in it, with a lot of antiviruses, it can take quite some time for Windows Explorer to finish reading the folder. But with Panda, this is not the case, even the first time I open a folder.

So far in terms of system impact so far, I would rate it close to Avast, AVG, ESET, K7 and Norton. All of which received higher performance scores. Also it is much lighter (for me anyway) than Emsisoft, Quick Heal, Trend, and Windows Defender, which also were rated higher. In partiular Emsisoft and Quick Heal caused a very big drop in performance.

I know that the system impact of an antivirus can very greatly from one computer to the next. But usually if an antivirus is going to cause slowdowns, it will do so on my main laptop which has hundreds of programs installed on it, and lots of processes running.
 
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RVS2

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The individual scores give the real picture not the cumulative scores.
Click on the AV name and it's protection numbers are shown. In that aspect, Kaspersky is the only one to get 100% scores. Plus it's been getting these scores consistently.
In the free options, the ranking according to protection scores is :

Avast
Avira
Panda
Emsisoft Anti Malware
 

SHvFl

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Sureeee and i learned to fly yesterday. Because it really seems to be a difference with all this numbers. They are not almost all the same.

Also none of this is the best way to protect the system but i decided to not be mad today so i will pass.
 

Evjl's Rain

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I'm trying Panda Internet Security at the moment, and so far it has been extremely light. I have only been using it for a few hours so far, which is not long enough to get a accurate idea of system impact, but does give some indication. When I open one of my downloads folders, with hundreds of installers in it, with a lot of antiviruses, it can take quite some time for Windows Explorer to finish reading the folder. But with Panda, this is not the case, even the first time I open a folder.

So far in terms of system impact so far, I would rate it close to Avast, AVG, ESET, K7 and Norton. All of which received higher performance scores. Also it is much lighter (for me anyway) than Emsisoft, Quick Heal, Trend, and Windows Defender, which also were rated higher. In partiular Emsisoft and Quick Heal caused a very big drop in performance.

I know that the system impact of an antivirus can very greatly from one computer to the next. But usually if an antivirus is going to cause slowdowns, it will do so on my main laptop which has hundreds of programs installed on it, and lots of processes running.
hi @roger_m can I ask 1 simple question? Can you disable the realtime protection while keeping the behavior blocker enabled. I would like to test panda's BB solely
 

jamescv7

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In terms of protection, an AV will remain same on the detection rate regardless on any flavors of Windows. (assumption all important features are working correctly).

In terms of performance definitely a contradicting to others results, so the better accuracy is came from users testimonies alongside of actual test which brings consistent rather on independent organization ones.

The question if Kaspersky is the best virus protection? Well not in overall but when it comes on innovative techniques then yes for their behavior protection and implementation of Application Control.
 

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