Windows 8 defender is actively shunned by the users according to a new survey. The users instead rely on third-party security software rather than Windows 8 defender.
Microsoft Security Essentials which was released on 29 September, 2009, is a security software including antivirus and anti-malware protection that has been offered free of charge for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 users.
In Windows 8, Microsoft Security Essentials has instead been renamed to Windows Defender, but the components and purpose remain identical to Microsoft Security Essentials and is installed and enabled by default with every Windows 8 installation.
A recent survey made by the security firm, Opswat, showed that while Microsoft Security Essentials is used actively by 98% of the computers running Windows Xp, Windows Vista and Windows 7, Windows Defender, however, is only used on approximately 33% of Windows 8 machines. This raises some question marks as Windows 8 Defender really should also have a similar usage rate as Microsoft Security Essentials considering that it is enabled by default in a Windows 8 installation.
According to Opswat, the low usage rates of Windows Defender can be explained by the fact that the users are confused about the functionalities of the software and its user interface. Hence the users would rather trust a third party security software than Windows Defender to provide them with a fully covered security.
The top security software being used overall for Windows machines were Microsoft Security Essentials, with 25.8% followed by Avast! Antivirus with 23.6%. The rest of the security software such as, AVG, Symantec, Avira and Kaspersky all had a usage share of below 10% in the study.
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