Windows has great protection built-in, so third-party suites come down to the extras.

Windows was not the safest operating system in the early days. Back then, malware and viruses were a risk that you were required to avoid and resolve on your own. As attacks grew, a whole antivirus industry spun up to provide protection for millions of PC users. Suites like McAfee, AVG and Norton were common options people installed to keep their computers safe.

Times have moved on, though. We've had built-in antivirus protection on PCs since Windows 8 launched in 2012. But third-party antivirus software still exists, along with apps offering more complex anti-malware protection. While there can be uses for these other tools, protection is now baked into your PC from the first day you boot, so you don't need to pay for it.

It took a few years for Microsoft Defender Antivirus to become something you can rely on. If you roll back 11 years and look at AV-Test's May–June 2015 testing, Defender scored just 0.5 out of six for the quality of its protection. Compare that to results from July-August 2026, where Defender earned the full six point. It detected 100 percent of threats in both the real-world attack and widespread malware tests, compared with industry averages of 99.9 percent and 100 percent each. Independent testing doesn't guarantee you'll have the same experience, but these real-world scenarios give you an idea of how Defender will react to threats your PC might face.

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