Are there solutions to Compatibility Issues with Thunderbird, Windows 8.1 and Anti-Virus Software, e.g., MacAfee?

Question

Since I upgraded to Windows 8.1, Thunderbird freezes up and goes into "Not Responding" mode repeatedly every few minutes. My research indicates that it is a problem with compatibility with antivirus software, which obviously is needed with an e-mail program. How can this problem be solved, or is there an antivirus program that works seamlessly with Thunderbird and Windows 8.1?

Answer 1

Personally I use ESET NOD32. It is not cheap, but it is unobtrusive and appears to get the job done. Originally I was drawn there for their server protection, but since I no longer have windows servers that need is gone, but I see no reason to change.
Previously over the years I have used;
* Norton (Found it just to much embedded into the operating system. Something went wrong with it and Windows would not boot.
* Microsoft Security Essentials. Any application using large data files was unworkably slow. That included Thunderbird.
* AVG It was just clunky and I did not like it.
But the big issue these days is the products are not just anti virus, they are suites including firewalls, password managers/vaults and often spam and scam tools. It is usually these later tools that cause the most issues with the firewalls blocking anything but known versions of known software and spam tools that mess up because it has not had enough testing.
Basically your on your own in selecting a product5. I can not recommend one. But I seriously question the need for mail scanning. Especially after that remarkable admission by Symantec regarding Norton's not scanning mail.
Thunderbird does not run any scripts in mail, nor does it do anything with attachments before you open them and then it decodes them and places them in the temp folder where any good anti virus will scan them.
Personally I suggest anti virus rather than security suite software. Especially so if you use Chrome or Firefox browsers and they both use Google lists of known malware and phishing site to block inadvertent visits.
Windows has a firewall, your modem (over 90%) has one as well, those firewalls block ports, protocols and route traffic. Do you also need one that blocks programs?
Mozilla products have a password manager, do you need another? And so the list goes on.