Microsoft says it’s not a fan of “sensationalizing” findings about Windows 7. Sophos’ tests show that Windows 7 is “vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses” Sophos obtained its results by planting ten instances of known malware onto a PC running Windows 7. Only two were caught by the OS. Microsoft’s director of Windows Enterprise Client Security Paul Cooke says the tests were flawed because they didn’t use Internet Explorer’s SmartScreen filter, which is not directly part of Windows 7 but to which an ordinary user would have access.”]
Source: https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/microsoft-windows-7-malware-threat-sensationalized-