Hello btnewman,
there is no such box to disable mandatory icons in Start menu and Taskbar (icons near clock). The installation was probably corrupted (by some conflict with other application or running it in uncommon way like "Run As Administrator" from right-click context menu) and I would recommend to reinstall AVG according to these steps.
In case the situation still persists, please gather AVG installation logs and MSinfo32 output, upload it in an archive(zip file) to favorite online storage and provide us with link to it, so we can analyze the situation.
Thank you
I just finished upgrading to AVG 2011 on my Vista computer. But I have no icons on my desktop nor on my "toolbar" (those little icons near my clock) as I had previously. It is not listed when I look for programs from my start button, but I can find the program in my program files when I look there.
Does this mean it is not installed?
Did I check/uncheck a box a shouldn't have during the install?
Thank you

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic