security Defender for 8.1

If you ask some general questions you may get many different answers.

I have been reading about Defender for 8.1 and it does not read well.

I would like to think there is a way to protect my machines without paying but could be wrong about that. I know there is compatibility with native tools but even MS said to look for another av if Defender is not working for you, or something to that effect.

So, as this is so subjective, what could i do to protect my pcs ? I have MBAM, SpywareBlaster, Defender and am behind a router.

I think what initiated this was seeing so many negative comments about Defender. It seems that MS is losing its grip with Av and security.

I read about Comodo security suite and was about to try it when someone very intelligently pointed out the downside with features I know nothing about like hips etc.

Everything boils down to an opinion and it is very hard to decide on a program with integrity.

Do you agree MS is slacking off with security and 8.1?

If so, do you have any reasonable suggestions that a person who is not a pro can utilize in their machine?

I know this isn't a very helpful response… but the fact is that the habits of the user or exponentially more important important than the brand of AV you use.

I disagree that MS is slacking off with security… because they didn't used to provide any!  Defender is essentially MSSE repackaged for Windows 8/8.1. 

As you said, it all comes down to opinion, but I think you have a reasonable security solution installed.  If you practice reasonably safe computing… you should be reasonably "safe".  I don't advise it… but utilizing safe habits does actually allow people to use the internet without any AV installed and remain infection free… but it is really, really, risky as anyone can get infected by a drive by.  Unfortunately, there are thousands of people using the World Weird Web who believe they are "clean" - but aren't, and are unknowingly spreading malware to others - so… I recommend that everyone use an AV.

First of all, Microsoft has not changed their approach to malware, nor does it offer any less protection. In fact, by their own numbers, the percentage of people reporting infections who are running Microsoft real-time protection is going down. In the last reporting period (June 2014), only 0.40% reported any infections. 99.6% reported no infections.

So why the bad press? What has changed? Microsoft quit playing the "independent testing" game. Where there is testing, it can be cheated. 3D video card manufacturers routinely make changes to hardware and software that have no effect on real-world results, but do improve test scores. Samsung was recently found guilty of detecting, and gaming the results of a popular mobile benchmark to make their results look better. As well, Microsoft once had some people on their team whose job it was to improve their test results. Not real-world tests mind you, just "independant test" results. They realized this was not a good use of a finite resource, and stopped the practice. Their scores have suffered as a result. They have recently offered some suggestions on improving the independant malware tests. Testing is flawed, and does need improvement.

All that being said, is Defender a good choice for 8.1? Yes. As borne out by Microsoft's reporting, and our real-world malware removal experience in this forum and others. However, there's a caveat. As more people migrate to Windows 8+ and have Defender installed by default, it becomes the de facto barrier to entry. As malware will have to get past Defender in order to get onto a Windows system, supplemental or alternative protection may be required. We aren't to that point yet, but will be someday.

I could be infected and not know it if my tools are inadequate. I am not suggesting they are but trying to explain why I wanted to obtain a decent level of protection/detection. You have both articulated your views well and thank you for your replies.