Windows 10: March-April 2018 test results: More insights into industry AV tests

Brink · Jul 21, 2018

In a previous post, in the spirit of our commitment to delivering industry-leading protection, customer choice, and transparency on the quality of our solutions, we shared insights and context into the results of AV-TEST’s January-February 2018 test cycle. We released a transparency report to help our customers and the broader security community to stay informed and understand independent test results better.

In the continued spirit of these principles, we’d like to share Windows Defender AV’s scores in the March-April 2018 test. In this new iteration of the transparency report, we continue to investigate the relationship of independent test results and the real-world protection of antivirus solutions. We hope that you find the report insightful.

Download the complete transparency report on March-April 2018 AV-TEST results

Below is a summary of the transparency report:

1. Protection: Windows Defender AV achieved an overall Protection score of 5.5/6.0, missing 2 out of 5,680 malware samples (0.035% miss rate). With the latest results, Windows Defender AV has achieved 100% on 9 of the 12 most recent tests (combined “Real World” and “Prevalent malware”). 2. Usability (false positives): Windows Defender AV maintained its previous score of 5.5/6.0. Based on telemetry, most samples that Windows Defender AV incorrectly classified as malware (false positive) had very low prevalence and are not commonly used in business context. This means that it is unlikely for these false positives to affect enterprise customers. 3. Performance: Windows Defender AV maintained its previous score of 5.5/6.0 and continued to outperform the industry in most areas. These results reflect the investments we made in optimizing Windows Defender AV performance for high-frequency actions. The report aims to help customers evaluate the extent to which test results are reflective of the quality of protection in the real world. At the same time, insights from the report continue to drive further improvements in the intelligent security services that Microsoft provides for customers.

Windows Defender AV and the rest of the built-in security technologies in Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP) work together to create a unified endpoint security platform. In real customer environments, this unified security platform provides intelligent protection, detection, investigation, and response capabilities that are not currently reflected in independent tests. We tested the two malware samples that Windows Defender AV missed in the March-April 2018 test and proved that for both missed samples, at least three other components of Windows Defender ATP would detect or block the malware in a true attack scenario. You can find these details and more in the transparency report.

Download the complete transparency report on March-April 2018 AV-TEST results

The Windows Defender ATP security platform incorporates attack surface reduction, next-generation protection, endpoint detection and response, and advanced hunting capabilities. To see these capabilities for yourself, sign up for a 90-day trial of Windows Defender ATP, or enable Preview features on existing tenants.

Zaid Arafeh
Senior Program Manager, Windows Defender Research team
Click to expand...

Source: March-April 2018 test results: More insights into industry AV tests Microsoft Secure

:)

Brink · Jul 21, 2018

Why Windows Defender is not ranked higher in new AV tests

Microsoft's Windows Defender ranks seventh out of 15 antivirus (AV) products in an independent test. But the results don't tell the whole picture, argues Microsoft.With improvements to Windows 10's built-in Windows Defender antivirus, some users are questioning whether it's worth paying for a third-party product from the likes of Symantec, McAfee or Kaspersky.

But according to the latest results for Windows home and business use from German AV benchmarking firm, AV-Test, Windows Defender is still trailing third-party AV, tying in seventh place with four other vendors.

The top AV products for Windows 10 across protection, performance, and usability in December were Trend Micro, Vipre, AhnLab, Avira, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and McAfee, according to AV-Test.

Windows Defender rated highly on protection, detecting 100 percent of new and old malware, but lost points for performance, which measures how much an AV slows applications and websites; and usability, which counts false-positives or instances where AV wrongly identifies a file as malicious.

Windows Defender's performance rating was dragged down because it slowed the installation of frequently used applications more than the industry average, and wrongly detected 16 pieces of legitimate software compared with the industry average of four.

But Microsoft wants enterprise customers to know that Windows Defender is only half the picture, given the option for customers to also deploy Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection's (ATP) "stack components" including Smartscreen, Application Guard, and Application Control.

In the January and February test Windows Defender also scored 100 percent on protection. However it did miss two samples. Since then it's retrained its machine-learning classifiers to detect them.
But Microsoft notes in a new paper that Defender ATP did catch them, which isn't reflected in AV-Test's or other testing firms' result. Microsoft hopes to change this so that testers include so-called stack components available in ATP.
Click to expand...

Read more: Microsoft: Here's why Windows Defender AV isn't ranked higher in new antivirus tests | ZDNet

TRWOV · Jul 21, 2018

Microsoft Security Essentials Fails AV-Test Certification

If you keep MSE updated, this is a no issue. If you see the results, MSE got it worst at catching undocumented threats...well that and rootkits but those a bitch to deal with. Every other test met the industry average.

For a free AV I'd say the results are fine.

Marie Ave · Jul 21, 2018

Test Sign mode

Hi Koutz,

The test mode message indicates that the test signing mode of the operating system is started on the computer. The test signing mode may start if an installed program is in a test phase because it uses drivers that are not digitally signed by Microsoft.

I'd like to know some details of the concern to help provide the appropriate resolution. Kindly answer the following question below:

Which build and version of Windows 10 are you running?

Is BitLocker enabled on your computer?

For you to disable the test mode, you will need to run it as an administrator. To do this:

Search cmd on the taskbar then right-click on
Command Prompt then select Run as administrator.
If you are prompted by a User Account Control window, tap or click Yes.

In the Command Prompt window, type the following command, and then press Enter:bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING OFF

After you see the confirmation, close the Command Prompt window.

Save any unsaved work, and then restart the computer.

If it still wouldn't disable the test mode, I suggest that you enable the built-in administrator account so you can disable this feature. Please note that you will be using this solely for troubleshooting purposes only. I do recommend disabling this after
the troubleshooting to avoid messing up your computer's functionality.

To enable the built-in administrator account, follow these steps:

Type cmd in the search bar, right-click Command Prompt, and then click
Run as Administrator.

When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.

At the command prompt, type net user administrator /active:yes, and then press Enter.

Type net user administrator <Password>, and then press Enter.

Note In this command, <Password> represents the actual password that you want to set for the administrator account.

Type exit, and then press Enter.

Log off the current user account.

Log back in with the admin account then disable the test mode by following the steps above or you can refer to this
link.

To disable the built-in administrator account, follow these steps:

Type cmd in the search bar, right-click
Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.

When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.

At the command prompt, type net user administrator /active:no, and then press Enter.

Type exit, and then press Enter.

Log off the current user account.

Update us with the results.

Windows 10: March-April 2018 test results: More insights into industry AV tests

March-April 2018 test results: More insights into industry AV tests

March-April 2018 test results: More insights into industry AV tests

March-April 2018 test results: More insights into industry AV tests

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