Move back to Windows 10 from 11 sees Microsoft Defender do well again in AV-TEST's results

Microsoft Defender had one of the rare moments of not being at the best in AV-TEST's previous result. The product suffered a heavy defeat and came in last place. This is the opposite of what typically happens as Defender is mostly among the best performers in AV-TEST's assessments. The previous test was also the first time that AV-TEST used Windows 11 as its test platform. In the latest ranking, however, AV-TEST has gone back to Windows 10 and curiously, Defender has once again regained much of the ground it had lost last time.

Although it has not scored the full 18 points, Defender has managed to put up 6 points, 5 points, and 6 points in the Protection, Performance, and Usability categories respectively. The full marks in each category are 6 points, for a total of 18 points. This means Defender's score in the Protection and Performance categories have each gone up by 0.5 points. And in the Usability metric, Microsoft's antivirus has shown no regression as it has stayed at 6 points.

It is likely that the stark improvement after moving back to Windows 10 is just a mere coincidence. What seems more plausible is that Microsoft took last month's result pretty seriously and has made improvements underneath. Still, it is an interesting thing to note regardless.

You can view the full test results on AV-TEST's official website here.