I love using AVG Free. It is a free antivirus that works. Yet when version 8.0 came out, a new service was added called LinkScanner. LinkScanner will try to identify sites that contain malware for you before you visit them. I did not need this service since I use Firefox, which has this service build in. So, as the type of person who tries to keep unnecessary services turned off, I disabled LinkScanner. If you do this you get a warning saying that you may not be fully protected. Another side effect is that the icon in the system tray turns grey and has an exclamation point.
Well this icon started to annoy me. Even though I was up to date on all my virus definitions and software patches, the icon was alerting me to turn on LinkScanner. I searched for weeks trying to find a solution for this. Finally, I found out a way to get rid of the grey icon with exclamation point and return it to a normal state.
Open AVG and goto:
Tools-> Advanced Settings-> Ignore default conditions
Select LinkScanner
Press OK