DavidR, I'm not able to locate a screen such as the one you displayed. Is your's the 'Pro' {$$} version? I don't find it on my free 'Home' version.
You ask: "Why turn it off?" I've been in contact with Microsoft regarding several OE6 issues. In addition to assisting me in 'fixing' OE6, they almost categorically recommend what I've copied and pasted in immediately below - james
Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.
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Sorry, what they have told you is absolute bo*****s I have been using avast for almost 3 years alongside OE6 and no problem deleting
It invades OE, god what tripe, not all anti-viruses are the same and avast is capable of operating with a very large number of different email programs and probably best with OE because it does understand the .dbx folder structure.
What they are talking about is not what happens, avast Internet Mail scanner doesn't scan the dbx folders, it scan incoming and outgoing email, but it does that outside the .dbx folders in a local proxy so emails are intercepted outside folders and don't touch the .dbx folder.
Now the on-demand scanner, does depending on the scan settings you give scan the .dbx folders (these are simply files containing multiple emails that are in an email folder), it is possible that an old email could be found that is infected and it can remove it in the case of OE without corrupting the file/folder.
I notice they don't once mention backing up your email folders, which should be a regular part of your system maintenance, backing up files, favourites, address book, emails, basically anything you don't want to lose. You should do this at least weekly and preferably daily. If you don't want to lose it back it up.
God they haven't got a clue about avast. They are talking in generalisations and they simply can't tar all AVs with their same outdated brush (ideas) of what AVs do. Sorry about the rant but they make me mad.
OE6 is a bloody minefield without an AV, full of potential holes and vulnerabilities and it needs all the help you can give it.