Quoting Craig with my post isn’t exactly accurate… 
Inaccurate about what ???, you don’t even use Win8 and have no idea what your talking about so stop posting your unknowledgeable rubbish in this thread as all you’ve done is drag this topic so of thread it isn’t funny.
The links your quoted http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/1/tech-helproom/4214708/windows-defender-v-avast-in-windows-8--hmmm/#ixzz2UEgaQBRK maybe you need to re-read the thread again as most of them don’t know the difference between defender in win8 and 7 just like yourself.
Your second link http://forum.raymond.cc/tutorials/34406-how-to-get-rid-of-windows-defender-windows-8-a.html is 15 months old and would have related to the early beta stages of win8
I support 4000 networks running avast! all over North America, I have 50 avast! resellers that I support, I have 10 Engineers that run and support Windows 8, and have supported my same Tucson clients for 40 years. There is absolutely no way that you have more experience than me! The number 1 issue with slowness is other $#@&* running in the back ground, and the 1st thing to look at is previous AV. The Defender issue that I speak of we had internally, as well as avast! clients. So don’t make statements about what you have not personally experienced. It hurts your credibility!
The only lack of credibility here is to you as every user here has been able to read about your lack of knowledge of Windows 8 and to have used quotes form third party users who also don’t know what there talking about to back your unfounded claims just shows exactly that your 40 years of experience means zilch and as a computer repair shop you should be absolutely disgusted with yourself and the help you provide.
You are also hard of hearing as I’ve stated that I use win8 and maintain many other win8 systems plus some of the users here that use win8 have all said in this thread that there experience with win8 is exactly the same as what I have told you, this also isn’t the first time that your advice on this forum has raised a few eyebrows regarding your lack of system knowledge, I’d strongly suggest some retraining as your advice is very poor and your customers are obviously having the wool pulled over there eye’s about your competency in looking after there systems.
"all you’ve done is drag this topic so of thread it isn’t funny. "
Back to the original topic, Although i thoroughly enjoyed reading all the comments above.
I managed to resolve the performance issues!
I decided i would see what processes Avast was running and select which ones i could do without, such as some of the shields which i will never need, Also turning off automatic updating and instead scheduling Avast to update at a certain time every day.
HUGE DIFFERENCE.
Would also like to add that all traces of “Windows Defender” have been disabled due to third party AV being installed and is inaccesible.
Thank you.
Glad to see you’ve solved your problem richmondj93, which shields have you disabled and which shield do you think was causing the performance drop ?
Also glad to see that Avast had automatically disabled defender as I know it does 
I think the screenshot pretty much proved that fact.
@richmondj93,
Frequent and streaming updates is one of the features that sets avast! apart from it’s free competitors and,
enhances your chances of avoiding an infection. Disabling protection features may gain some resources for you but, is the
loss in protection worth that gain ???
All things in life are a tradeoff. This decision isn’t any different.
Hmm…streaming updates are a great feature but as to it offering better protection over other free av,s,well that is a conundrum.
The chances of a casual web user coming across a “streamed” up date is hit and miss.
As to the issue of windows defender,well this is utter nonsense.
When people buy a new laptop or desktop and install an av,Just wonder how many people actually forget to turn off defender.!?
They still run a fairly smooth system.
Im leaving this topic now and said my piece in the nature of peace.
It will just turn into a fanboy frenzy before our eyes.
Au revoir.
Coming in at the end of a topic without first reading it is a mistake :
We are discussing Defender on Win8 in this thread which is a full Antivirus and is automatically disabled when another AV is installed compared to the completely different Defender installed on Win7 and Vista which will run fine with most AV’s as it is only scanning for spyware but is useless and may as well be disabled.
Craigb keep in mind in W8 the MS Defender doesn’t automatically disabled when another AV is installed, trust me it doesn’t the user must disable this manually before installing Avast Free when I was cleaning up and installing Avast on clients laptop computer who has W8
I never disabled defender when I installed avast! but as the screenshot that I posted proves that it is disabled.
Your wrong there Speedy, I’ve trialed roughly 7 different AV’s on Win8 so far and they all disable Defender Automatically and once there uninstalled and a reboot Defender starts running again
That very strange I have seen this issue with my own two eyes, any way I’m not going to say any further cause I don’t want to fight I’ve seen many strange settings behind W8 when clients screw thing up
@Bob I saw that your screen shot, all I’m saying is a lot of my clients screw up W8 OS when is not broken from the start and it should automatically disabled when another AV is installed.
Speedy was your move to win8 installed from scratch or did you upgrade ? upgrading is the only time I’ve seen strange behaviour on win8 and once I install the OS for whoever as a clean slate there are never problems.
Mine was a mix. The one I’m using now was an upgrade and some of the others have been clean installs.
The results have been the same on all of them. avast! on and Devender automatically turned itself off.
A lot of my clients new laptop comes with a pre-install of W8 built inside the laptop as I have in my ASUS laptop their okay and very safe and I do see automatically disabled when another AV is installed following me so far, some clients laptop don’t have a pre-install of W8 built inside the laptop just a straight W8 OEM version and when my client comes to me with a problem he/she doesn’t have their own W8 OEM DVD with their own license can be a major problem. So I had to clean out as much as I can without the W8 OEM DVD to reinstall from scratch is not very good idea and depend IF they’ve done a system image backup. Some Client don’t have the money to buy a W8 OEM DVD with their own license because some people are on the pension and I deal with these people free of charge, and I never had any complaints from these people who are on the pension when some computer guys keeps ripping off pensioners always break my heart.
I’ve never had client who wants to upgrade from W7 to W8 so far.
he/she doesn't have their own W8 OEM DVD with their own license can be a major problem.Sorry but that isn't legal. On a pension or not.
I agree with Bob here. Something smells fishy about SpeedyPC’s last post. 99% of new laptops have a recovery partition. Most manufactures did away with restore disks cause everyone loses them or throws them out. Not sure what kind of business you run Mr.Speedy but it does not seem professional. Heck even BestBuy’s Geek Squad members do not do that. Even if you bought a new laptop without a recovery partition the manufacture can send you the restore disks free of charge. On the rare case I need to start off fresh rather then trying to repair an OS I simply backup the customers personal stuff and burn it on a CD. Then I tap F11 while booting up and restore the hidden recovery partition. Its that easy. Then I give the customer back there pc with the CD I created for them.
I think you have both misread Speedys post, he offers free help to pensioners, he did not say he was installing free copies of windows for them.
In Australia a pensioners can get Government Support to help them get a W7 or W8 a OEM license or a new computer no trouble from there, trouble is most pensioners don’t look or ask, what really sad was when I see laptops have a recovery partition that’s gets wipe out when pensioners buy second hand laptop from a Computer Markets & Computer Fairs. I’ve seen W8 & W7 on second hand laptop that don’t have a W7 & W8 recovery partition.