recently installed the avast virus scanner. Does this icon belong to it? (screen)
 

this icon pops up for a few seconds all the time, too fast to mouse over it ot click it to check, so i made a quick screencap:
http://i42.tinypic.com/rlcadw.png
the blue ball with the a is avast too... i think this popup icon is too but im not sure

wondering this for a few days, and the moment i make this thread i get an idea - started fetching emails and it popped up a little longer... its the email scanner of avast. So all is good ;)

Man dont use Avast, use NOD32.

Yes - Its the mail-shield icon from Avast. Its every time your program send/recieve email

no idea cause we use Mcaffee so bump for you