86 TECH ADVISOR • MAY 2021GUIDE TO PC SECURITY
as uBlock Origin to keep out a good
chunk of potential ad-based malware
penetrations. These moves won’t catch
everything, however, especially if you’re
visiting the less reputable corners of
the web. Norton, for example, is often
more proactive about blocking malicious
activity than the browsers are. That said,
regardless of your browser, Windows
Security should have no trouble blocking
potentially malicious file downloads.
Moving on, Device security is a section
that does its work in the background
and anything you see here is mostly
informational. Device performance &
health, however, gives a quick glance at
the current hardware status, including
battery life, storage capacity, software,
and the Windows Time service. This is
also where you can carry out a ‘Fresh
start’ to reinstall Windows.
Finally, the Family options area
lets you manage your child’s activities.
Microsoft allows you to manage
Windows 10 devices, Xbox One
consoles, as well as Android devices
if they have the Microsoft Launcher
installed. That’s a great set of options,
and is on par with a lot of other services.
You can set screen time limits, and
restrict time for specific apps and games.
There’s also an option to implement
buying restrictions on the Microsoft Store.
Overall, Windows Security has a goodset of options for security, from antivirus
scans and ransomware all the way down
to parental controls.Performance
Judging Windows Security performance
is a little tough since the utility is built
right into Windows. Nevertheless, you
can turn off a lot of the functionality to
get a sense of its impact on PCs.
Running PCMark 10’s Extended
Creative test saw a dip of just five points
between Windows Security in active and
dormant modes.
The large-file transfer test was a
different story, with the test PC scoring a
slightly slower speed by 23 seconds with
Windows Security active. Again, not a
huge drop, but lower-end PCs might see
a difference when transferring large files.
The other performance tests included
the archive and unarchive test, with a
difference of about 20 seconds. The
bottom line is that most PCs won’t suffer
much of a performance impact, if any,
from Windows Security.
As for the testing houses, AV-Test
gave Windows Defender (the AV portion
of Windows Security) a 100 per cent
score for both its 0-day and prevalent
malware tests, using 368 samples and
13,000 samples, respectively. The testing
period covered July and August 2019.
AV-Comparatives also gave