Microsoft Security Essentials is most used anti-virus
According to the latest reports, Microsoft Security Essentials is the most popular anti-virus application worldwide. Microsoft’s solution, which is free to all genuine Windows users, has taken the top spot in the second quarter of 2011, as reported by OPSWAT’s study (via Softpedia).
Microsoft Security Essentials was found running on 10.66% of the 43,000 computers that were tested by OPSWAT worldwide. This beats the second place getter by a small margin, which was Avira Antivir Personal with a 10.18% share; AVAST! Free Antivirus came third with 8.66%.
However, when looking at worldwide vendor market share, Microsoft comes in fourth with 11.24%, getting beaten by Avira (12.29%), AVAST Software (12.37%) and AVG Technologies (also 12.37%). This difference is due to other anti-virus distributors having more than one AV product available, allowing their multiple products to combine to achieve the highest vendor market share. It is still great to see Microsoft so high on this list despite having only one major security offering.
