It may be a bad news for Microsoft lovers, but here’s a weird news for them. According to AV TEST–the German antivirus lab, Microsoft failed to achieve the security certification in tests conducted by it. Every two months, AV-Test performs tests on popular antivirus software and security products, and the latest test was performed on Windows 7. Unfortunately, Microsoft Security Essentials didn’t pass the test to achieve certification. What is even more ironic is that other free antivirus software, including Avast, AVG and Panda Cloud managed to get the certification.

AV Test performed the tests in three categories: protection, repair, and usability. In each category, a security product can earn from zero to six points. When all categories are added, the software needs to have at least 11 out of 18 points to pass the test, and Microsoft got only 10.5 points. Of the 23 products tested, 16 scored worse this time around, some of them quite a bit worse.

Bitdefender Internet Security won the certification with 17 out of 18 points. F-Secure Internet Security and Kaspersky Internet Security came in second and third respectively with 15.5 and 15.0 points. ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall got the highest score with 14.5 points.

So, if you are using Windows 7, make sure that you keep a check on your system’s security.