I think the direction Microsoft is moving in is disturbing..but it is their product I guess.
Regarding defender, I ran that stuff on my w2k box for a while and it never found anything. That would be good if were not for the fact that spybot and adaware were finding things. Did anyone else run it and what did you think?
It was a great product when it was Giant Spyware Tool. I ran it as a MS beta and deleted it when it was no longer free. It was useless.
For spyware protection and cleaning you can't beat AdAware and Spysweeper.
Go to this link, read it and click the View Results link at bottom of the page.
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests_overview.php
MS's Defender comes in dead last in every category.