For years, Microsoft security solutions were considered baseline security, with experts recommending the deployment of third-party programs such as Norton, Kaspersky, Bitdefender, and Panda Security.

But those days are long gone, as Microsoft Defender is performing right up there with the best—and it is mighty impressive that the application comes bundled with Windows and is available to users for free.

Antivirus assessment firm AV-TEST is here with its latest malware protection test, focused on ransomware, for April 2022.

The results now show Microsoft Defender scoring full points in both the corporate edition and consumer edition tests. This is an all-the-more praiseworthy performance from Defender, as consumers can now expect a similar level of protection that enterprise users get.

A total of 34 products were put under the radar this time from 17 participating firms in 10 test scenarios. Products in the home user or consumer category differed from those in the corporate category.

The images below show the scores obtained by solutions in both categories:

Up next, we have two images that provide a breakdown of how well Defender performed for Windows home users in 10 live-tested scenarios:

And finally, we have the breakdown for business users:

Excellent showing all around from Microsoft Defender, which can now proudly boast about going toe to toe with the best in the business. This is not just for end users but also for companies who want that peace of mind.

You can find more details on the official AV-TEST website here.

A Geekbench listing has been spotted for the chip.

Its results show a marked improvement over the current generation Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, which now powers a handful of Windows on ARM machines. It is still nowhere near what Apple has done with its impressive M1 lineup, but that is to be expected.

After all, those chips outperform some of the best CPUs from Intel and AMD.

But getting back to the leak, it shows a single-core score of 1010 and a multi-core score of 5335. The Gen 2 chip could only muster 797 and 3006, respectively. This is what devices like the HP Elite Folio and the Surface Pro X were limited to.

This Gen 3 chip’s single-core score put it within the range of the Lenovo Yoga C740, which actually houses an Intel Core i5-10210U CPU. Its multi-core numbers place it above the HP Spectre x360 14, which is powered by an Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor.

While benchmark figures are not the only factor that affects PC performance, computers powered by this upcoming chip could see significant improvement over the previous generation.

Then again, Qualcomm might need all the help it can get, as the company may soon see more serious competition in the Windows on ARM space after its exclusivity deal with Microsoft expires.

The promise of the third generation of the Qualcomm 8cx line would at least help Qualcomm fend off potential competitors.

You know, the likes of MediaTek and Samsung.

And this is a major milestone for the shiny new platform.

Redmond has been adamant about how it has designed the new OS to get the best out of the hardware. Modern hardware, if you will, but optimizing for every ounce of performance was something the software titan took very seriously.

It even went on record to say that Windows 11 will be faster than ever before in 2022.

Well, 2022 is here, so how are we looking?

It looks like Microsoft was not exaggerating, as the latest data by system builder Puget Systems finds that Windows 11 is now indeed faster than before. It may not yet have a clear advantage over Windows 10, but the two operating systems continue to trade blows in terms of hardware performance.

Matt Bach, senior labs technical at the company, writes:

“The last time we compared Windows 11 to Windows 10 for video editing, rendering, and game development, we found that Windows 10 typically gave measurably higher performance than Windows 11. That was right after Windows 11 officially launched, however, and there have been a host of updates, and even entire new generations of CPUs launched, since then.

The good news is that we didn’t see nearly as many performance issues with Windows 11 this time around, so many of the problems we saw at launch seem to have been worked out. On the other hand, Windows 11 also wasn’t a clear winner over Windows 10 in most cases.”

Good stuff.

The firm tested both operating systems in a variety of real-world test scenarios to measure performance, including a range of hardware and software, including Intel and AMD processors and applications like Premiere Pro, V-Ray, and Unreal Engine.

And, long story short, the measurably high speed and performance advantage that Windows 10 had over its younger brother is no longer. The new OS is now much more at home in performance-intensive tasks.

You can read the full test results here.

But Defender has made a name for itself in ransomware protection—malware that locks up your data and requires you to pay to get access back. This is not surprising, considering how well the security solution is entrenched in the OS itself.

The folks at AV-TEST recently tested this to see how well Microsoft Defender performs.

Describing its advanced ransomware test, the company states:

“The Advanced Threat Protection tests provide vendors and users with substantial findings as to how securely a product can protect against ransomware in real-life scenarios.

All the products have to successfully defend against ransomware in 10 real-life scenarios under Windows 10. The test involves threats such as files containing hidden malware in archives, PowerPoint files with scripts or HTML files with malicious content.”

A total of 12 products were put through the paces in the home user/consumer category, while 14 were tested in the business category.

The following images show how Microsoft Defender conducted itself for home users in ten test scenarios.

It detected the infection in the very first initial access phase in all but one case, which is impressive. For business users, it went even better, detecting the infection in the initial phase in all ten test scenarios.

The final scores obtained by the antimalware products are displayed in the images below.

In this case, the scores don’t really mean much, as the real observation in this test was to see just how quickly products can detect and successfully block ransomware. Microsoft Defender passed it with flying colors, while competing solutions like McAfee and Trellix did not.

Good.

Still, that doesn’t stop Redmond from tying.

And trying again it is.

Apparently, the software titan is planning to launch a new version of its ARM-based Surface Pro X powered by Windows 11 in the near future. An engineering sample of this upcoming device has shown up on Geekbench, which shows some impressive gains against the current model.

Made public earlier this year, the benchmark listing shows an “OEMVL OEMV” prototype, in line with the naming scheme that has previously been used by Microsoft for its Surface lineup — including the Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, Surface Book, and even Surface Go.

The listing reveals that this machine is in the early stages of development, given its naming scheme and single-core tests. Furthermore, the company is testing the hardware with Windows 11 preview builds.

As the numbers show, the prototype was able to fetch a score of 1005 on single-core and 5574 on multi-core. These results are significantly higher than those of the Surface Pro X with the SQ2, which managed to garner scores of 806 and 3247, respectively, on single and multi-core.

It is worth mentioning that the device was benchmarked in the Balanced power plan, so it is very likely that the results will be higher if tests are run again with the machine in the High-Performance plan.

Nevertheless, while these are good performance numbers, they come nowhere near what Apple has managed for its M1 chip. Qualcomm still has a long way to go to match the fruity company, which fetches scores nearing the 8000 range.

We should hear more about this next-generation rival from Microsoft for the M1 chip soon enough.

The feature that Microsoft has delayed as it works to refine and further optimize it.

It is probably during this testing over at Redmond that someone has caught wind of it.

As the benchmarks show, a wide range of configurations are testing this feature. The Geekbench listings reveal some setups with Qualcomm ARMv8 processors, while others are listed with placeholders. The core counts of the tested systems also vary widely, ranging from 8 to 20.

As you can glean from the scores below, the numbers are good, and most Windows 11 PCs should not have any trouble running Android apps well.

One result has the Windows Subsystem for Android netting a single-core score of 827, with multicore numbers coming in at 3070. Tests were done in Android 11, with a Qualcomm ARMv8 processor with 8 cores and close to 6GB of RAM.

Surface Duo, which has an actual Qualcomm 855 chip got around to a 760 single-core score and a 2847 multicore one, and this shows how powerful this feature can potentially be.

For comparison, the Galaxy S21 got a single-core score of 1048 and a multicore score of 3302 in testing. And so, while the Windows scores range drastically, any decent modern computer should be at ease running Android applications without too much trouble.

That is, if these benchmarks are indeed accurate or even genuine, which we have no guarantee of knowing or confirming at this stage.

But considering the fact that these were spotted shortly after a listing in the Microsoft Store for the Windows Subsystem for Android showed up, there is a good chance they are. Plus, as we recently learned, the feature is not coming to Xbox consoles.

At least, not yet.

We already have hints that Redmond is gearing up to launch a whole new family of Surface devices, including the Surface Pro 8 and whatever the company calls the Surface Book 4. The second-generation Surface Duo 2 is also well and truly in development.

And now, it seems that the Surface Go 3 is also in the works.

Listings have appeared on Geekbench that are believed to be of the upcoming portable budget tablet, powered by shiny new Intel chips.

While nothing has been confirmed regarding the Surface Go 3 at this point, the benchmarks indicate that the device might come in two variants — one with an Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y processor and the other with the Intel Core i3-10100Y chip.

Both CPUs are from the Intel Amber Lake Y series, and are energy saving chips designed to deliver modest performance on the go.

The listings further reveal that the base model of the Surface Go 3 comes housing 4GB of RAM, while the more powerful Core i3 model has an option of 8GB of memory.

Of course, exact specifications are unknown at this time, and will likely remain so until Microsoft makes these devices official. But we do have an inkling of the performance to expect based on these synthetic benchmarks that show some solid improvements over the Surface Go 2.

The base model has a 62% better single-core score and 47% better multi-core score than the Pentium Gold 4425Y model of its predecessor. Numbers are 3,197 and 5,643, respectively. The difference at the higher end appears to be much smaller, with 4% and 11% improvements over the Intel Core i3-8100Y.

We should know more soon.

And now, the handset has shown up on Geekbench.

The first report highlights the listing, which has provided fans who are anticipating this device with some concrete spec information regarding the follow-up smartphone Microsoft has prepared in the form of the Duo 2.

And the numbers show that the Duo 2 performs just about as you would expect a device sporting the powerful Snapdragon 888 chip. Based on the results, there are no additional accelerants built into the software just yet.

Duo 2 put up a 1071 single-core score and followed it up with 3166 in multi-core testing.

A subsequent report from Windows Central corroborates these benchmarks with their own sources familiar with the product. The big news is that there are many undecided variables regarding this one.

First up, the Surface Duo 2 will come with Android 11 on board, and Android 12 is not exactly in discussion behind Redmond walls right now.

The camera on the handset is a 12MP affair, with a standard lens and options for telephoto and ultrawide sensors. And this should definitely help address one of the biggest disappointments with the original device.

Then there are plans to increase the screen sizes, likely by reducing bezels, support for NFC, bake in a lift-to-wake gesture, throw in larger batteries, higher refresh rates, and take care of the now-infamous camera bump.

In other words, nothing is set in stone just yet.

Microsoft is exploring what to do, and how to do it, when it comes to the Duo 2.

That said, given the slow leak cycle for smartphones this past month or so, the launch of the Surface Duo 2 this fall is getting all the more concrete. An official tease from Microsoft would be great.

But in the meantime, we’ll take these leaks as they come.

Microsoft developed the technology to allow people to use Linux distros and apps within Windows.

And with the Insider builds of Windows 11 now out in the open, the Linux community is interested in finding out if Redmond has made any further progress, or if more improvements remain to be made towards the ultimate goal of offering performance that is near bare metal.

Which is why folks over at Phoronix ran a test to see where things stand with this feature.

A system based on AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with 2 16GB DDR-3600 memory modules and a WD Black SN750 NVMe solid-state drive was loaded with the first Insider build. That being, Windows 11 22000.51. The benchmarks were run before the build was updated, but the results should broadly be the same.

And the results?

WSL2 was found to offer almost the same performance as native Ubuntu in many scenarios, though there were instances where the Windows 11 implementation of WSL2 could not even perform as well as in Windows 10.

That’s mostly got to do with the additional debug changes that are currently shipping with these builds.

A key observation is that WSL2 performance tends to be much slower than having a bare metal Linux installation when I/O is involved. But the second iteration is still improved then the original WSL, so Redmond is on the right track.

The Linux community will monitor the performance of this feature as Windows 11 develops.

In the meantime, you can check out the full details and results of the benchmark at the link above.