So, I replied to CA's support ... hahahaha!  Ignored.  I guess they don't want my business any more!

P(w32) 4.41

CA eTrust EZAntivirus (or whatever they're calling it now)  Engine Ver: 30.4.1.

 This was a recent upgrade.  As I've mentioned elsewhere this software is turning into bloatware, which is a real annoyance.

 Anyway, all of a sudden after this upgrade, I am getting detections from the AV program from the .cnm new mail files of phishes.  Which is a real nuisance, because it causes Pegasus to die (poof no error message) but the AV reports it tried to delete the virus.  In reality, it didn't do so succesfully because if you reopen Pegasus, there's the mail in all its glory with the preview window turned off.  Turn preview on "Poof" AV report again; Pegasus dies again.

Next time, restart Pmail, delete the message, then turn preview on. 

 
I don't have email scanning enabled, and so I've disabled scanning CNM files (but that doesn't seem to work ... have to try CA's support for that one and like Norton, it's offshore ... god save me!.

I wish Pegasus opened the file share allow others read only.  That way, as soon as Pegasus opens the file for preview, it doesn't die; allows the AV to scan; disallows AV to DO anything to the file.  It then allows me to deal with the file without losing Pegasus.

 This was how Poco and Eudora appeared to work. 
 

I had posted a reply to this but somewhere it disappeared into the ether!

OK ... it seems that the command to not scan .cnm files got lost in the changes made to the new user interface (I'm beginning to hate CAs AV program)

I changed plans and decided to allow the AV prog to SCAN the files, but not delete or quarantine them or "disinfect" them

 
The problem is now that even though the program isn't touching the Pegasus files to write / move them,  Pegasus still passes away in the blink of an eye without an error message of any kind when the files are displayed in the preview pane (Haven't had another phish email to check if it happens on an ordinary Open without the preview pane enabled..

Definitely need some ideas on how to deal with this apart from reopening Pegasus.

 

Yup, dies without preview enabled too as soon as you select the mail and the AV scans it.

Is it not possible to throw up an error like "Another program (possibly an antiVirus program) has this mail file open" and not vapourize itself? 

You could perhaps try Grisoft's AVG, since that one's free to home users:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

I've used it in the past and found it reasonably fast at scanning and not too heavy on resources. IIRC, it can set itself up as a proxy for mail so that the mail passes through it before getting to the mail program. No problem with conflicts with the mail program there, since anything infected doesn't get to the Inbox. The current version seems to have plugins for specific email clients but something generic for all others:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5/lng/us/tpl/v5 

I agree. I have been using the PM / AVG combination for ages and find it quick and accurate. A nice solution.

I use AVGFree on other systems here ... I've got another year of paid service on the CA product.  It used to be an excellent product until it started to bloat.

I guess I should complain to them ... but they'll simply point back at Pegasus  

I used AVG Free for some time and it worked quite well. Now I'm using AVS (Anti Virus Shield) sponsored by AOL and with Kaspersky engine, and it works quite well too. More: it found some things that AVG didn't find, but never both had problems with Pegasus Mail.

Finally heard from CA support ... and as I feared ... useless ... "Turn off email scanning" ... didn't read did you?!?!

They closed the ticket and sent me a questionnaire on the support experience ... Score from 0 to 10 = 1

 He was polite.