Microsoft Defender slows down Windows – ITdaily.

A comparative test conducted by AV-Comparatives shows that Microsoft Defender is one of the most powerful antivirus packages for Windows. Which package got the best results?

Microsoft Defender is one of the popular antivirus programs in Windows. This is not illogical, because the software is included as standard in the operating system and also provides you with a sufficient degree of security. Previous tests have already shown that it is not the most efficient solution and this has been confirmed once again Vehicle comparisonswhich conducts performance tests on popular antivirus suites three times a year.

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AV-Comparatives tests the impact of antivirus software on various everyday computer actions, such as downloading files, installing and opening applications, and browsing the web. A PC with an Intel i7 processor, SSD drivers, 8GB of RAM, and a 64-bit version of Windows 10 was used for testing. Since the performance of Windows 10 and Windows 11 is similar, this test also gives a good idea of ​​how many resources each Windows 11 antivirus is eating up in the background.

Greedy Microsoft Defender

Microsoft Defender appears to be a rather greedy antivirus, as AV-Comparatives concluded. In the final rankings, the Defender was placed in penultimate place with an Impact Score of 17 (the lower the score, the better), awarded by AV-Comparatives based on its own data and PC Mark’s benchmark scores. Only comprehensive defense has a higher effect.

The effect of Defender can be felt, among other things, when installing applications and archiving files. The latter procedure is slow even if Defender is on your computer. These are also the weaknesses of Total Defense, which also affects copy speeds.

Defender is certainly not the only antivirus that can slow down Windows. Many popular antivirus suites, including Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, and especially McAfee, cause applications to start more slowly. Eset received the best report, which is hard to say, with a score of 1.4.

The numbers are fairly consistent with those AV test, which also published its October report. Defender gets a score of 5.5 on a scale of six for its performance in this test, the same as AVG, F-Secure, Norton, and Total AV. AV-Test also sees delays in installing apps with Defender, with Windows’ built-in antivirus scoring well above average (34 percent compared to a 17 percent average).