A suggestion concerning the tray icon

[Guest]

First of all a big "Thank You" to tzuk for his magnificent program.

I would like to make a suggestion concerning the tray icon of Sandboxie. By asking in another forum I found out the follwing:

- Yellow Tray icon with red dots inside means: Sandboxie is running
- Yellow Tray icon without red dots inside means: Sandboxie is inactive (either with contents either without contents)

To my mind this is a little bit misleading because usually we associate "yellow" with light and activity, and dots in a field with contents (and vice versa the missing of dots with a lack of contents).

So I suggest a modification that could have the following structure:
- Dots within the tray icon mean: There is contents in the sandbox (either the sandbox is running or it is inactive).
- A yellow Tray icon means: Sandboxie is running. *
- (for example) A grey tray icon means: Sandboxie is inactive. *

*) In both cases either with or without dots inside, depending on if there is contents in the sandbox or not.

Thank you for reading my suggestion.

[SnDPhoenix]

Well this is not too bad, only problem is that, you mention that the icon should be yellow only if the sandbox is active, well the sandbox(es) are always yellow.... so the icon would always be atleast yellow... like it is now...

That leaves only one other additional icon possible, and that is, the yellow icon with dots in it. However we have 2 situations to cover with that one possible icon left.
We need to either have the dots in the sandbox when something is running in a sandbox (situation 1), or when one of the sandboxes have content inside of them (situation 2).
If we have the dots applied in situation 1, then that eliminates any confusion as to if you have any programs running sandboxed or not, plus using common sense, you'd know that some (or all) of your sandboxes have content inside of them unless you've recently deleted those sandboxes or you have auto-delete set in some or all of the sandboxes.
If we apply the dots in situation 2 however, then it leads to confusion. Cause if the dots are always applied to the icon all because your sandbox has content inside of it, then it confuses people though to which programs are running sandboxed, how many are running sandboxed, which sandboxes have running apps, etc.. Plus, most Sandboxie users (especially registered users) are going to create multiple sandboxes. So not just would the dots be applied for simply having content inside the sandbox, but even more confusing though, is that what happens if you got 7 sandboxes and 5 of them turn out to have content inside of them? How would you know that and know which sandboxes have content inside? So the icon would just always have dots inside and wouldn't go away until you manually delete every sandbox (losing the data inside each sandbox) until the red dots go away? Plus all this while as you are doing that, you are still getting confused as to if you have any programs running sandboxed and if so, which programs are currently sandboxed, and which sandbox they are running in?

So obviously, the wise choice would be to go with situation 1... which is already what we have now...
So in other words, the icons shouldn't be changed.

[Guest]

Unfortunately my English is not very good, so I am sorry if I misunderstood your comment.

But I think the situation is quite simple if we concentrate on your first axiom:

.... well the sandbox(es) are always yellow....

That is exactly what I suggest to change. You have the same distinction with other software too. Lets take for example Skype or Yahoo Messenger: As long as you do not log in, you see a grey tray icon - and only after logging in, it changes to its usual colour.

Something similar I suggest here. "Logging in" would be the starting of a program (e.g. a browser) in a sandbox. So we would have 4 different situations:

1. Grey icon without dots inside = no program is running in any sandbox / no content exists in any sandbox
2. Grey icon with dots inside = no program is running in any sandbox / but there is content in at least one sandbox
3. Yellow icon with dots = in at least one sandbox is running a program / and at least one sandbox has some content
4. Yellow icon without dots = in at least one sandbox is running a programm / but no content exists in any sandbox

---> The colour refers (solely) to the issue if programs are running in a sandbox (that's what I meant when saying the sandbox is "active"), the dots refer (solely) to the issue if there is content in a sandbox.

Of course when using multiple sandboxes, this can give you only a general overview, but at least you will get more information than now: If you have 7 multiple sandboxes, at the moment you can see in the icon only, if in (at least) one of them is running one (or more) program(s). In this case appear the red dots.

So I think, that my suggestion would mean no disadvantage for the users of so many sandboxes, but on the other side it would be useful (at least) for those who use simply one (or two) sandboxes at the same time.

[Guest]

I forgot to describe it also in a more general way to make more clear what is my intention:

- Usually in order to show that something is "active", "running", "turned on" etc. you do it by using a colour, by lightening something etc.

- On the other hand, to show that something is "filled" (that it has "content"), you use some marks (like dots) that you put in a certain area.

At the moment, the sandboxie tray icon is not based on these logical (or at least generally used) principles. That is the main reason why I suggest to change it. A pleasant second effect would be that you would have two informations instead of one, as described above.

[tzuk]

First of all a big "Thank You" to tzuk for his magnificent program.

Thanks, and you're welcome.

I would like to make a suggestion concerning the tray icon of Sandboxie. By asking in another forum I found out the follwing: Yellow Tray icon with red dots inside means: Sandboxie is running

You need not have asked. This is explained in the Getting Started tutorial.

At the moment, the sandboxie tray icon is not based on these logical (or at least generally used) principles. That is the main reason why I suggest to change it. A pleasant second effect would be that you would have two informations instead of one, as described above.

Consider that what you find logical and according to principles, someone else may find confusing, and even annoying.

Confusing, as in, mentally managing four states is more confusing than remembering two states.

Annoying, as in, people who have more than one sandbox may keep some sandboxes eternally populated. Do these people need a constant reminder that any of their sandboxes is not empty?

My opinion (and let us not debate it, please) is that the icon need not imply whether the sandbox is empty or not. So that leaves just the indication that the sandbox is active or not. The indication for that has always been solid yellow vs red dots, and I see no point in changing this merely for the sake of change.

(And by the way, the dots are meant to symbolize programs playing in the sandbox, not file content.)