With the launch of new AVG 2013 suite this month, we catch up with product manager Jiri Tuma for insight into the development of the new look AVG products.

What were your goals when designing the AVG 2013 range?

Our goal was simple and that was making it the best AV product for people. This year, we’ve focused a lot on ease-of-use with the new interface which will make the product easier to use than ever for users of all experience. Of course we spent a great deal of time working to improve overall performance and protection so that AVG users are the safest users on the web today.

How do detections differ from AVG 2012?

Every year we examine our detection methods and try and find a way to improve them and this year is no different.

Having tackled newly coded viruses and emerging malware throughout 2012, the 2013 virus database is full of up to date definitions and optimized to detect some of the most popular malware on the web.

Safety is the primary concern for any antivirus and this year we’ve added several new detection methods including enhancements in both static and dynamic heuristics, added support for APK, passworded RAR and xor-encrypted PE files. On top of this we’ve improved support for LNK and JOB files and host of functionality looking forward to Windows 8, so users can be absolutely sure that with the AVG 2013 products they are more protected than ever before.

How can AVG 2013 products help my computer’s performance?

The AVG 2013 products don’t just offer exceptional protection for your PC, this year we’ve included more performance related enhancements than ever.

In independent tests, PC’s running AVG Internet Security 2013 run 26% faster than the 2012 equivalent and the user interface also loads 200% faster.*

We’ve also improved scan times with the introduction of AVG Turbo Scan which dramatically shortens security-scanning times thanks to a smarter scanning sequence that follows the order in which files are saved to the hard drive. Independent tests have measured a 36% improvement in scan time.*

For our AVG Premium Security users we also have a great feature called ‘QuickTune’, which is able to assess the user’s system and monitor for performance problems. Once it finds and corrects the issues, it helps to speed up the most critical parts of the system – its drive and registry.

*Data provided by independent studies from Dennis Technology Labs (www.DennisTechnologyLabs.com), commissioned by AVG.

If I already have AVG PC TuneUp can I still benefit from AVG Premium Security?

Absolutely. AVG PC TuneUp is a standalone product which offers  performance related tools to help ensure your PC runs at its top speed. It’s a beneficial add-on set of tools to your security product.

On top of this AVG Premium Security offers a host of other functions which will help you stay secure online including Identity Alert. Identity Alert is a service which scans the web for a user’s personal details and informs them when their personal information has been misused.

For more information on AVG 2013 check out our product blog.