It’s always exciting seeing new products, in fact it’s one of the highlights of this industry. Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a webinar on the new 2013 AVG range of products (6th September) and was very impressed. Amazing changes to whole range, but not yet implemented on the business range which are still on 2012.

Apart from a snazzy new set of boxes (although the AVG logo is still the same) and a new interface, very metro style, there are many changes. Taking the interface first, this is clean, obviously designed with Windows 8 and tablets in mind, it is easy to navigate and layout seems obvious. The big icons will make it easy to handle with fat fingers on touch screens. Overall, a nice improvement, although the more techy among you will not like the fact that the ‘advanced’ controls are buried, but how often do you need access to the ‘advanced’ section.

Can you believe, AVG have been in business 22 years, that’s 5 years more than KTS Computers Ltd. That shows that they listen to their customers, in fact one of the comments they have taken on board is that customers don’t want anti-malware getting in the way of working, or slowing us down. So with that in mind they produced more than just a new ‘current’ interface on an old product. which is why the interesting changes for us are under the bonnet. For those that like statistics the following are just for you!

• Improved detection rate
• less false positives
• up to 36% faster scans with AVG Turbo Scan
• Do not Track
• Simplified firewall
• Faster start up for PC (up to 26% quicker)
• Faster start up time for AVG interface (up to 200%)
• Faster launch of browsers (up to 34%)

Data by Dennis Technology Labs

The turbo scan is one of the exciting new smarter scan technologies AVG are employing, basically, instead of scanning the files in the order they appear in the directory, the scan is done in the order the files appear on the disk. (as with all products, scan times are faster if disk is defragmented).  The Do not Track feature gives you the choice of allowing a website to collect data on your browsing or not, you are in control. And the firewall is so much easier, and due to the way the changes are implemented it is less intrusive and faster, giving faster start up times for AVG and web browsers. This means a much slicker easier experience.

I think AVG offer a lot of protection for the money, and all I can do here is scratch the surface of the changes. I haven’t spoken about the mobile protection, PC Tune Up or any of the really interesting (to Nerds and Geeks!!) features. If you would like a more in depth discussion, feel free to phone or email me (sales @ ktscomp.co.uk. Or you could even contact KTS and we will happily take the stress away, install the product for you and make sure your PC is optimised whilst there.

If you have any questions or problems with malware, anti-malware, your PC, tablet or anything else IT related, we are here to help. Email or phone us on 01480 469019

You can also send us a question on Twitter @Ask_Ken and of course, we’d love to hear about YOUR malware or anti-malware issues, so leave us a comment below!