The only thing I've seen recently was EMET stopping an older version of flash player in FireFox after an ad set something off.

This ain't script-kiddie stuff she got hit with. This is definitely the work of pros.

There are a lot of criminal elements in Europe and what used to be the Soviet Union who have concentrated all of their resources on this kind of stuff as it is far more lucrative than the 'conventional' crime they used to engage in.

Is anti-virus software a waste of money? There is a very good possibility it may be.

Is anti-malware and security software a waste of money? There is a very good possibility that it isn't.

I conducted a fun (and very telling experiment) with MSE a couple months ago. I took an external hard drive and filled it with all sorts of 'sketchy' stuff...lots of viruses, trojans, malware, pupware, cracks and keygens.

MSE detected every single crack and keygen on the drive. Every other file MSE triumphantly declared as being clean. This should tell you what Microsoft's focus is when it comes to their 'security' software.

It would have ben interesting to let it find a crack of an MS product.  Then check the logs to see if it tried to call home. 

A quote I read somewhere recently:
"Virus check complete. All viruses functioning normally."

Heh.  A new product could be Intel VO.  No, not a whiskey.    Virus Optimization. 

Did you just call us not knowledgeable?

So we're not expert enough? What does it take to be a mouser-qualified expert on security topics?

Of course not. It is very useful thing

So we're not expert enough? What does it take to be a mouser-qualified expert on security topics?

Presumably someone who seems to know what s/he is talking about on the subject under discussion.
Oops. Oh, wait...

I have updated the Windows Defender (also Microsoft Security Essentials MSE) - Mini-Review with comments and a link to this discussion thread.

As stated in that review:

Conclusions:
Windows Defender aka MSE is an excellent AV tool. Performs as designed, and very well.
There are other AV tools, but to a large extent they would seem to have been eclipsed or made redundant by Defender/MSE, as the latter would now seem to be the de facto anti-virus application and virtually a no-brainer for the majority of PC users.

Given the latest turn in events and as per this discussion thread:

In the ongoing discussions, there was a general argument that most AV products could be akin to a scam and in some cases as bad as a virus, with the sole exception of Microsoft's MSE/Defender.

I found this interesting because I had independently - and based on experience - already arrived at this potential conclusion some years back. In particular, for example, the experience of Norton/Symantec AV, as an OEM install, being notoriously cuckoo-like and hostile to other AV software to the extent that it blocks out Defender and puts hooks all over the ruddy registry - so much so that it even needs to have it's own special tool made by Symantec, to completely expunge it from the OS. Hence, "Like a virus."

From my perspective, after the experience of using Defender/MSE over the years, supporting several PCs with it installed, and installing Defender/MSE on other people's PCs to replace their existing cruddy/$annoyware AV products, the best things about Defender/MSE seem to be:

1. It just works pretty much seamlessly with everything.
2. You can install it and forget about it.
3. It just gets on with doing its job.
4. Very low maintenance.
5. One less potentially unproductive technical support issue to have to spend time on or worry about.