As you know my virus protection product of choice is AVG Internet Security, and this is the product I choose to supply to my customers - this choice is not simply made based on which product will make me the most money, but is based on which product will provide the best protection to my customers and which product they will get on with the best
With that in mind I have recently done a test of all the major virus products to see which one provides the best protection - and as you can see from the results below AVG Internet Security is the winner, closely followed by Bullguard Internet Security
N.B. This testing is completely unbiased towards AVG - if a different product had of come out top then I would have looked further into this and considered changing my recommendation, it is in no way fixed or tested to favour my recommended product, the whole point of the hours spent testing is to make sure that I and my customers are using the best protection available
Results
|
PRODUCT |
EMAIL LINKS TEST |
SCAN TEST |
EMAIL ATTACHMENT TEST |
SPYWARE TEST |
SYSTEM FILE TEST |
INFECTION TEST |
COMMENTS |
1st |
AVG Internet Security |
PASS |
88% |
PASS |
PASS |
PASS |
8 / 8 |
Good results again from AVG passing all tests
Removed all viruses without any confusing prompts asking user what they wished to do which is good
Only downside is that it often recommends installing other tools such as PC TuneUp, Web TuneUp and Driver Updater - which I personally advise not using - but these prompts can be ignored so doesn't take away from its performance in tests |
2nd |
Bullguard Internet Security |
PASS |
82% |
PASS |
PASS |
PASS |
8 / 8 |
Includes a data backup tool with 5gb of online storage space, parental controls, spam filter and vulnerability scanner (to check for missing security updates) |
3rd |
Bitdefender Internet Security |
FAIL |
79% |
PASS |
PASS |
PASS |
8 / 8 |
Very slow at times especially during installation and when scanning for viruses
Not very impressed with user interface - but did perform okay in most tests |
4th |
Avast Free Antivirus |
PASS |
84% |
FAIL |
PASS |
FAIL |
8 / 8 |
For a free product this done quite well in testing although it failed on the important system file protection test |
5th |
Kasperksy Internet Security |
PASS |
75% |
FAIL |
PASS |
FAIL |
8 / 8 |
Installs and updates very quickly, but unfortunately failed on the important system file protection test and didn't protect the user from the infected email attachments |
6th |
Norton Security Deluxe |
FAIL |
92% |
PASS |
FAIL |
FAIL |
3 / 8 |
A very poor showing from this product - very slow to install and update - slowed computer down considerably, especially boot-time
Testing of this product took twice as long as any other product and the results were not good at all - allowing the system to be infected with some very nasty malware which encrypted data files and demanded a ransom - these files could not be recovered and Norton could not remove the infections without the aid of additional tools
It allowed critical system files to be changed which would result in all your internet/network traffic being redirected
It also allowed a key logging tool to run, add itself to startup, capture all keyboard input, send it via email and remain undetected |
7th |
Windows Defender
N.B. This is the basic security included with Windows 10 |
FAIL |
67% |
FAIL |
FAIL |
FAIL |
8 / 8 |
This is the basic security included with Windows 10 so wasn't necessarily expecting it to do well but included it as a base line
It failed most tests, but did in fact protect the system from being infected by the nasty viruses I tried running |
8th |
McAfee LiveSafe |
FAIL |
38% |
FAIL |
FAIL |
FAIL |
7 / 8 |
Constantly prompts asking if you wish to remove threats even giving you the option to say no and ignore serious viruses
Failed miserably on all tests - allowing the machine to be infected with Ransom32 virus which encrypted all data files - it then failed to find/remove it and actually reported that the machine was not infected
It allowed critical system files to be changed which would result in all your internet/network traffic being redirected
It also allowed a key logging tool to run, add itself to startup, capture all keyboard input, send it via email and remain undetected |
