Windows defender antivirus free download - Scheme Factory, RWThemes Tracker, and many more programs. Windows Defender vs Avast: Which Provides Better Malware Protection? Both Windows Defender and Avast use signature-matching detection (comparing files against a huge database of known malware threats) to catch known malware and heuristic analysis (monitoring behavioral attributes of files) to detect previously unseen malware (also called ‘zero-day malware’). As with its Windows cousin, Avast for Mac offers realtime filesystem and web defense — critical elements in blocking those annoying Trojans — as well as email protection.
Microsoft Windows Defender 4.9
Pros
Built into Windows 10. Simple ransomware protection. Easy access to Windows security features. Always on if no other antivirus present.Cons
Mixed results from independent test labs. No protection from lower-risk malware. So-so phishing protection. Poor malicious URL blocking.Bottom Line
Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center protects Windows 10 PCs that have no other antivirus protection, which is a good thing. But the best third-party free antivirus tools are more effective.
Windows has included antivirus protection for ages, but recently Microsoft has upped its security game. Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center protects against Trojans, viruses, ransomware, and other types of malware, but it also manages your security overall. It's always active on systems that have no other antivirus installed. If you install a third-party security solution, Windows Defender's antivirus component goes dormant, to avoid any conflict. We salute Microsoft for ensuring that all users have at least some degree of antivirus protection. Our latest evaluation suggests that Defender does a pretty good job.
Windows Defender differs from other free antivirus tools in that there's no installation required; it's already present. When you click the Defender icon in the notification area, it opens the full Windows Defender Security Center. The main window's home screen reports security status, and offers five additional feature pages, accessed by clicking large icons across the bottom or small icons in the left rail menu. I'll go into detail about these pages below.
In addition to the expected Quick, Full, and Custom scan options, Windows Defender offers what it calls Offline Scan. Designed to handle persistent malware that doesn't yield to a normal scan, this scan reboots the system and runs before Windows fully loads. That also means it runs before any malware processes load, so the malware is defenseless. If you feel that you still have a malware problem after a regular scan, give the offline scan a try.
Lab Results Up and Down
Some years ago, Windows Defender routinely earned truly awful scores from the independent testing labs, coming in below zero at times. It's been improving steadily, at least with some of the four testing labs that I follow, and its scores now range from so-so to excellent. Microsoft does contract with both West Coast Labs and ICSA Labs for certification. Among the products that I review, the only others that contract with both of those labs are AhnLab and ThreatTrack Vipre Advanced Security.
Security experts at AV-Test Institute rate antivirus programs on three criteria, Protection, Performance, and Usability. The antivirus can earn up to six points for each of these. For certification, a product needs a total of 10 points and no zeroes. In the latest report, Windows Defender got 6.0 points for Protection, 5.5 points for Performance, and 6.0 points for Usability, an impressive total of 17.5 points. For the first time, Defender merits the title 'Top Product,' reserved for those that manage 17.5 or18.0 points.
McAfee and Norton also took 17.5 points in this test. Kaspersky and Trend Micro managed a perfect 18 points. Among free products. Avast, AVG, and Avira Antivirus earned 17 points and Comodo took 17.5 points.
London-based SE Labs awards five levels of certification, AAA, AA, A, B, and C. In the previous report from this lab, every tested product, Defender included, managed either AAA or AA certification. The most recent test exhibits much more of a point spread. Kaspersky and Norton topped out with an AAA rating, but Bitdefender, usually a top scorer, fell to B-level certification. Among free products, Avast and Avira earned AA certification, while AVG at least managed A-level. As for Windows Defender, it got the lowest passing grade, a C.
Antivirus products don't get a numeric score or grade from the researchers at AV-Comparatives. A product that passes the test gets Standard certification; one that doesn't just gets marked Tested. Those that do more than the minimum can rate Advanced or Advanced+. I follow four of this lab's many tests. In those, Windows Defender failed one test, reached Standard in two, and managed Advanced certification in one. Kaspersky, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, and Vipre earned Advanced+ ratings in all four tests.
British testing firm MRG-Effitas runs two tests that I track. One is a pass/fail test that challenges antivirus products to defend against attacks on online banking. The latest banking protection test did not include Windows Defender.
The other test from this lab measures defense against a full spectrum of malware types. In this test, a product that completely prevents all the malware attacks earns Level 1 certification. A product that remediates 98 percent of the attacks within 24 hours gets Level 2 certification. In the latest test, Avast, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET NOD32 Antivirus, and Kaspersky achieved Level 1 certification.
For the first time, Windows Defender passed this test. It was one of about a dozen products that received Level 2 certification. AVG and McAfee AntiVirus Plus were among the others to receive Level 2 certification.
Since my last review, Windows Defender improved markedly in results from AV-Test and MRG-Effitas, but dropped precipitously in SE Labs certification and failed one test from AV-Comparatives. My aggregate score for Windows Defender is 7.2 points out of a possible 10, the lowest score for any program tested by all four labs. Kaspersky managed a perfect 10. Avast Free Antivirus, Avira, and AVG, also tested by all four labs, earned aggregate scores of 9.0, 8.9, and 8.7.
Varied Malware Protection
If you don't have any other form of malware protection, or your antivirus expires, Windows Defender steps in and does its best to keep you safe. How safe? To get an idea, I challenged it to protect my test system against a collection of various types of malware. Note that Windows Defender doesn't promise to detect lower-risk items, such as adware and potentially unwanted programs, or PUPs. Most other antivirus programs at least give you the option to detect and remove these lower-risk items. In testing, it did remove many of these lower-risk programs, along with major threats such as ransomware.
To start my hands on malware protection, I copy a folder containing my current set of malware samples to the test system. Windows Defender's real-time protection eliminated 54 percent of the samples. My sample folder also contained 20 PCMag utilities, programs that dig deep into Windows and that are old enough to be uncommon. Happily, Windows Defender didn't meddle with any of those.
I took the remaining samples and launched them one by one, noting how Windows Defender reacted. It caught some, but not all, of the remainder at this point. One way or another, it detected 82 percent of the samples and scored 8.0 of 10 possible points. That's a bit down from my previous test, where it scored 8.3 points. I've only tested two other products with this relatively new set of samples, and both did better. Malwarebytes scored 8.4 points, and IObit Advanced SystemCare Ultimate scored 8.7 points.
Norton, Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, and Emsisoft detected every single one of the samples in my previous collection. Norton and Webroot earned a perfect 10 in that test. Results aren't directly comparable, since the latest tests use different samples, but a perfect score is always impressive. Avast and AVG, also tested with a different sample set, both managed 97 percent detection.
My malicious URL blocking test uses the newest malware-hosting URLs I can find, typically no older than the previous day. I launch each URL and note whether the antivirus blocks all access to the page, eliminates the downloaded malware, or does nothing at all. Technically SmartScreen Filter provides this protection, but Windows Defender manages SmartScreen Filter.
Out of over 100 malware-hosting URLs, Windows Defender blocked access to 20 percent at the URL level, and prevented download of the malware payload for another 73 percent. It did the latter in two ways. For some files, SmartScreen warned that the download is unsafe, stopping it at the source. For others, the real-time antivirus wiped out the file immediately after download.
The product's protection rate of 93 percent is vastly better than the 53 percent it earned in my previous test. Only a handful of recent products have done better. Norton, the top scorer, protected against 98 percent of the samples, and Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security came very close with 97 percent. AVG and Avast came in below 90 percent.
You might notice that the score for Malwarebytes 3.0 Premium has an asterisk; here's why. Malwarebytes blocked access to 22 percent of the malware-hosting URLs, but it does not automatically scan downloads. It only scans programs when they start to execute. I made an exception and launched the downloaded samples, at which point it detected and eliminated another 67 percent.
A full antivirus scan of a clean test system with Windows Defender took an hour and a half, twice the current average, and a second scan wasn't much faster. Kaspersky Free finished in 30 minutes. It used the first scan to note safe files requiring no further scanning, which allowed the second scan to run in just four minutes. AVG took a bit over an hour for its first scan, but a second scan ran to completion in less than 10 seconds.
Very Good Phishing Protection
Phishing websites don't bother infecting your PC with malware. Instead, they try to fool you into giving up your login credentials for your email provider, banking website, even dating and gaming sites. They do so by creating a page that looks exactly like the real thing, hoping you don't notice that the URL in the Address Bar is wrong. These sites get blacklisted and shut down quickly, but the fraudsters just pop up with new ones.
To test phishing protection, I gather reported phishing URLs from various websites. I favor those so new they haven't yet been analyzed and blacklisted. Anybody can block blacklisted sites, after all. A real antiphishing solution needs the ability to detect frauds in real time. Phishing attacks vary wildly over time, so instead of reporting a hard percentage, I compare the product's detection rate with that of long-time phishing powerhouse Symantec Norton AntiVirus Basic, and with the phishing protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.
Here again, SmartScreen Filter is the specific component that handles protection. I tested it in Windows 10's Edge browser, figuring that might outperform Internet Explorer. I figured wrong. IE and Edge came in with precisely the same detection rate. However, their results weren't identical. IE blocked a few that Edge didn't, and vice versa. Go figure!
Coming in just 6 percentage points below Norton's detection rate, Windows Defender joins the elite club of products that are good at phishing protection. That's way better than in my last test, where Windows Defender lagged Norton by 30 points. As noted, it tied with Internet Explorer, and it lagged 2 points behind Firefox and 3 points behind Chrome; not bad at all!
Simple Ransomware Protection
Buried in the antivirus settings is a hidden gem that offers a degree of ransomware protection. It's turned off by default. Scroll down to 'Controlled folder access' and turn it on. By default, it protects your Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, and Favorites folders.
To test this feature, I tried to edit a text file in a folder on the desktop using a tiny text editor I wrote myself. When I tried to save, I got a message, 'Stream write error,' and a popup from Windows Defender noting that it prevented the change. The same thing happened when I ran my simple encrypting malware simulator.
The similar feature in Bitdefender, Trend Micro, and Panda Free Antivirus lets you extend trust to an unrecognized program directly from the popup warning. With Windows Defender, you must dig into settings and choose the application, but you can totally do it.
Security Center
There's a reason they call this utility Windows Defender Security Center. In addition to providing protection against malware, it serves as a central location to manage other security features. Clicking the icons at the left side of the main window brings up pages of security information and settings.
The Device Performance & Health page checks for any issues with Windows update, storage capacity, and device drivers, offering help to resolve any detected issues. On this page, you can also click for a 'fresh start,' a full reinstallation of Windows that retains your documents and some settings, and restores your Windows Store apps. However, it warns that the process wipes out desktop apps, including Microsoft Office and third-party antivirus.
From the Firewall & Network Protection page, you can check the status of Windows Firewall and perform simple tasks like allowing an app through the firewall. It also offers quick access to network troubleshooting and firewall configuration. Windows Firewall is effective enough that you may not need a third-party firewall.
You use the App & Browser Control page to configure aspects of SmartScreen Filter. By default, it warns if you download dangerous files or venture to dangerous websites. You can set it to block without warning, or—bad idea—turn off protection. SmartScreen also checks web content used by Windows Store apps. Expert users can dig in to configure exploit prevention technologies including CFG, DEP, and ASLR. If you don't already know what those abbreviations stand for, you're not qualified to meddle with the settings.
The final page, Family options, tracks the parental control options built into Windows 10. Parental control features include content filtering, screen time control, and limiting kids to age-appropriate apps, as well as locating the children's mobile devices. However, it works only on Windows and only in Microsoft browsers, and it can't compare with the best third-party parental control software. It's of little use in this modern multi-platform world.
Windows Defender On Mac
Best Defender Yet
Making sure that every Windows 10 PC has at least some degree of antivirus protection is a good move on Microsoft's part. We used to say Windows Defender is better than nothing. This time around, we're willing to say it's pretty darn good. Some of its lab test scores are excellent, though others aren't. Note, though, that Defender's developers have maintained for years that those lab tests are irrelevant, because their own extensive telemetry indicates successful protection of their users. In our own hands-on tests, it went from mediocre to very good for phishing protection and malicious URL blocking.
Yes, the very best free antivirus utilities give you even more protection, and they earn great scores from the independent testing labs. Avast Free Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free are our Editors' Choice products for free antivirus protection. Even though Avast owns AVG, the two have their own distinct feature sets. Avast comes with a network inspector, a password manager, and a bevy of security bonus features. AVG rates website safety, actively blocks privacy-invading trackers, and integrates with AVG's Zen management platform. You're free to try them, or any of our other top-rated free antivirus tools, and choose the one that suits you best. If Windows Defender suits you best, go ahead and run with it.
Use Windows Defender On Mac With Avast For Mac
Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center
Use Windows Defender On Mac With Avast For Mac Review
Bottom Line: Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center protects Windows 10 PCs that have no other antivirus protection, and it has significantly improved in our hands-on tests since our previous review.