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Windows 7 anti-malware products compared

Independent test lab AV-Test Institute compared 34 anti-malware/Internet security products for home and business users on Windows 7 64-bit. Trend Micro came out on top for business; Bitdefender, Kaspersky and Qihoo for consumer.
Written by Larry Seltzer, Contributor

AV-TEST Institute, an independent test lab specializing in anti-malware, has released the results of their latest tests of anti-malware products. These tests were run on 64-bit Windows 7 in January and February of this year.

The tests compared nine business products and 25 consumer products. The products were compared for detection of malware, including 0-day malware for which the products had no signature; performance impact on the system; and false positive detections and warnings.

Among the business products, Trend Micro Office Scan 10.6 had the highest score, followed closely by Bitdefender Endpoint Security and G Data AntiVirus Business. The top consumer products were Bitdefender Internet Security, Kaspersky Lab Internet Security, and Qihoo 360 Internet Security.

Quite a few of the products detected 100% of the malware in the protection tests, including four of the business products (Trend Micro, Bitdefender, G Data, and F-Secure) and six of the consumer products (Bitdefender, Kaspersky Lab, Trend Micro, G Data, Microworld, and F-Secure). The average detection score for 0-day malware was 94 percent. The lowest scores were for Microsoft Security Essentials, which AV-Test uses as a baseline score against which to rank all the other products.

Six consumer products tied with the best score for impact on system performance: Bitdefender, Kaspersky Lab, Qihoo, McAfee, Symantec, and Tencent. Norman, PCKeeper, and especially ThreatTrack scored badly here. Among the business products, Trend Micro Office Scan got the highest possible score, with the other products, particularly the McAfee and Symantec products, noticeably lagging. 

Five of the business products got the top score for false positives, but only two — Bitdefender and G Data — had no false positives at all. Fourteen consumer products got a top score for false positives and four had no false positives in the tests: Bitdefender, Avira, Panda Security, and PC Keeper.

The complete list of products tested, including version numbers follows:

Business Products Consumer Products
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