"Bitdefender, Kaspersky Lab and Symantec lead the field while the protection packages from Avast, F-Secure and GData share fourth place," AV-Test said. 

Who was in last place? Yep, Windows Defender, which was five points behind everyone else.

Nevertheless, AV-Test says its tests at least prove that Windows 8 can be secured, as long as the user is willing to pay for an external security program.  

Malware results

When it comes to malware, the results were similar. 

"The suites from Bitdefender, F-Secure and Kaspersky all did the best job in this category, achieving detection rates of 100%, while the best free programs, namely those from Avast and AVG, were only able to make it to eighth and twelfth place respectively," said AV-Test. "The Windows Defender provided by Microsoft in its operating system set a very low benchmark value with a detection rate of just 79%."

AV-Test also confirmed what no one likes to admit -- namely, that stopping malware comes at the cost of impaired system performance.

"Although the best programs in the 'Protection' category also achieved excellent results in this 'System Load' category, none of them were able to score the maximum total of six points," AV-Test said. "This test category is proof that high security comes at the expense of a certain amount of system performance."

On average, the top 10 products earned an average of 4.0 points (out of 6.0) for system load, while the top-ranked product, from Bitdefender, earned 5.2.

What to do 

The takeaway for consumers is pretty obvious. If you're going to run any version of Windows, you need a strong antivirus and malware protection software suite. Any of the top three named above should do the trick.

Don't want to buy antivirus programs? OK, fine. That leaves you with these options:

• Get a Mac. Although Macs are not immune to viruses and malware, they are much more resistant than Windows and also are not attacked as often.
• Get a Chromebook. Google's Chromebook relieves you of having to worry about security. It also relieves you of having to buy Microsoft Office, since it works with Google's office suite, which runs in the cloud and is, we should mention, free.
• Switch to Linux. The Chromebook locks you into Google and doesn't give you the opportunity to run programs from your hard drive. If this matters to you, or if you just like to play around under the hood now and then, download a copy of Linux Mint, the best desktop program out there bar none. It's secure, free and rock solid and comes with its own suite of office programs, combining the benefits of the Mac and the Chromebook.