In November, it did worse with only 71 percent. According to the organization, MSSE caught only 78 percent of freshly devised badware thrown at it in December - the industry average was 92 percent. In recent times though, MSSE has slipped - a lot.ĪV-Test basically flunked MSSE for having the worst zero-day detection rates of any virus scanner. MSSE quickly took off and gained a reputation as a top contender, once receiving excellent marks for its lightweight foot print, simple interface and detection/removal capabilities. This made MSSE an exciting alternative to long-time freebies Avira, Avast and AVG. Since its debut in 2009, Microsoft's no-cost anti-virus has remained free of advertisements, nagging reminders or required registration.
The anti-virus utility marked its first failure for Sept/Oct. By extension, Windows 8's built-in virus protection, Windows Defender, likely suffers the same shortcomings as it is essentially a rebadged version of MSSE. Microsoft Security Essentials has once again failed to make the grade for certification at AV-Test, an independent but non-required honor that most anti-virus programs enjoy.
