Hello Elliott,
Your issue sounds little weird. Our AVG program will starting scanning the incoming emails only when it arrives so there is no chance of it scanning when there are no messages. However to disable the scanning option for incoming emails please follow the below mentioned instructions:
1) Open AVG program
2) Click on Options at the top and select "Advanced Settings" in it
3) To the left pane click on Email scanner and in the drop down you can find the Settings
4) When you click on Settings to the right you can find an option at top to scan incoming emails with a check box
5) Please untick that check box and click on apply and ok to save the changes.
Once this is done please check whether your issue persists and do let us know the status of this. Thank you.
When AVG is scanning incoming email, even when there are no messages, it "takes over" temporarily, thereby interrupting what I am doing in, e.g., MS Office or Firefox, and I get a ding sound if I try to enter something, including just now as I am entering this query, while the scan is running unless I close the AVG pop-up window. How do I avoid the issue without disabling the scan?
Hello Elliott,
Pleased to know your issue have been fixed. We appreciate your valuable effort in trying out the steps.
Please feel free to contact us for any further assistance. Thank you.