AV-TEST The best Windows antivirus software for home users (June, 2021)

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  1. This test shows how an antivirus behaves with certain threats, in a specific environment and under certain conditions.
    We encourage you to compare these results with others and take informed decisions on what security products to use.
    Before buying an antivirus you should consider factors such as price, ease of use, compatibility, and support. Installing a free trial version allows an antivirus to be tested in everyday use before purchase.

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Thread author
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
During May and June 2021 we continuously evaluated 21 home user security products using their default settings. We always used the most current publicly-available version of all products for the testing. They were allowed to update themselves at any time and query their in-the-cloud services. We focused on realistic test scenarios and challenged the products against real-world threats. Products had to demonstrate their capabilities using all components and protection layers.

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CyberDevil

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Apr 4, 2021
252
Eset is second tier antivirus, Trend Micro has always been superior
Trend Micro is better than Eset in protection only because it has so many false positives, based on most recent lab reports. But, this definitely does not make it a higher class solution than Eset, especially since it has very modest customization options, while Eset configured to the max is really very good with all its features and can be close to first tier solutions.
 

Zartarra

Level 7
Verified
Well-known
May 9, 2019
312
Eset detects in most of the cases more samples than Trend Micro. But Eset is indeed for advanced users. Trend is more set and forget. I wonder what samples they use? I tested the latest version of Malwarebytes last week. It missed 121 samples on a total of 384 samples.
 

mlnevese

Level 26
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 3, 2015
1,531
ESET could do a lot by coming with a bunch of common rules, such as documents protection for instance, pre-configured. Make an advanced setting to activate these rules and you improve the protection a lot. ESET is certainly a top tier protection if you have the knowledge and patience to configure it.
 
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Digmor Crusher

Level 23
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 27, 2018
1,236
Virtually every test from these guys most AV's score 5 or better out of 6, what's the point? Basically their saying pick anyone one of the top 15 AV's we test cause there is no difference. And if you believe them it also confirms, just use Defender.
 

Evjl's Rain

Level 47
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Malware Hunter
Apr 18, 2016
3,684
IMO, ESET highly depends on signatures and heuristics. This means it's up to the company to find and add malwares to their database. If something is wrong with the company, the AV will struggle. ESET's behavior blocker is almost non-existent although they added it recently. It's so weak
In other words, ESET is too reactive, not proactive enough

Unlike ESET, kaspersky, bitdefender or norton, for example, who have well-known behavior blockers, will surfer less, when the companies are lazy to add signatures. BD and Norton are having trouble to keep up with malwares
Only Kaspersky is good at both adding signatures and behavior blocker
 

Harputlu

Level 5
Verified
Well-known
Dec 26, 2016
211
Trend Micro is better than Eset in protection only because it has so many false positives, based on most recent lab reports. But, this definitely does not make it a higher class solution than Eset, especially since it has very modest customization options, while Eset configured to the max is really very good with all its features and can be close to first tier solutions.
As a home user, I don't like to adjust the program. System slowdown and instability worse for me after changing program's settings. eset has so many settings options. it is impossible for the home user to know these .
 

Gangelo

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Jul 29, 2017
268
The home user should NOT be diving into settings below other settings to make something work properly, it should provide decent protection out of the box.
ESET nowadays is overrated. And this is coming from someone that has a soft spot for it because I remember using it from back in the day (Nod32 era).

There are plenty of decent security solutions in the market, for all budgets and preferences, the differences in protection % are very small.
Just my 2 cents..
 

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Thread author
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
ESET detected 97.9% zero-day malware. A total of 282 samples were tested in the zero-day test. So ESET at least blocked 276 threats out of 282. So it missed 6 zero-day threats. This is pretty good for a product that is kind of fully reliant on signatures, heuristics only. Malicious web URL and email threats were tested here so every product's web protection modules (those who have it) also came into play.
ESET missed less than 6 zero-day samples in other recent AV-Test's results so this one was worse. I want ESET to do better than this but then again, the chance of getting infected by a zero-day malware in a home environment is close to zero. So, no need for a happy ESET user to switch to another AV after seeing this test. ESET scored almost perfect in the widespread and prevalent malware test. ESET is just fine at default settings. It's not the best but surely one of the best.

Marcos of the ESET forum teased an upcoming feature coming to ESET Smart Security Premium users in the next product update. Quoting him,
For maximum protection I'd recommend using ESET Smart Security Premium which will have a new protection feature added in v15 that will substantially improve protection from malware in untrusted files.
Another regular member there speculated that it could be something like ESET Dynamic Threat Defense (EDTD) which is available in ESET's Endpoint products at an extra fee. It could be something else too. We can't really know until they officially announce it or maybe push it to beta testers.
 

NewbyUser

Level 2
Verified
Well-known
Jul 16, 2021
53
Everyone forgets this, 97.9% is pretty damn good. But today's world, everyone wants perfection. The most important factor is what works on YOUR system. While using one of the alleged "better" AV's with a "stronger" BB, I've had to whitelist 53 actions in just over a month. Technically those are false positives even though a lot of people "like" dealing with them because it means their chosen AV is "working".
 
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