Regular visitors and people that know me, know that I’m a bit of a nut when it come to security and Internet Privacy. Over the years many people have criticised Microsoft for all the apparent insecurities of the Windows operating system(OS), It seems that Windows 8 addresses this even better that Windows 7. The Anti virus/Anti Malware is built-in to the OS and doesn’t really need a third party Anti Virus product installing. I’ve had to re-evaluate my thinking! Previously I would have said that a third party product from someone that specialises in security and anti virus was the way to go but now, when all said and done, no one understands the Windows code like Microsoft! I suppose at the risk of being uncompetitive etc, they have decided to address the security concerns and maybe they could do more but as a long time advocate of Vipre Internet Security, when I updated to Windows 8.1; I found that Vipre wasn’t 100% compatible so avoid the aggro I uninstalled it. I was very nervous of relying on Windows Defender as it runs in the backgound and doesn’t need any user intervention. I decided to keep Malwarebytes (MBAM) Pro and it runs quite happily with Windows Defender. To date, I haven’t had any problems. So, maybe 3rd party Anti-virus products are no longer needed, I would still recommend doing regular scans with Malwarebytes and would recommend buying the Pro version as it’s a once only purchase and you don’t need to keep paying every year. XP is the past, have a look at Windows 8.1 Update, due out tomorrow.