Sandboxie-Plus Vintage View

I'm looking into making the Simple View, look more like the classic UI




what do you think?

should I also re do all the menus to look like in classic?

and yea you can enable the pizza background independently.

 

smaller icons please for mouse users, your image is for tablet users and chunky fingers ^^

 

well that's 32x32 just like the classic ui looks like

Shoudl I add a seaprate UI setting for icon size?

 

I assume the look as in the above image would be the alternative to this one (of course the colour of the window frame must be ignored because it has to do with my individual settings):



---> So the main difference seems to be the color (and size) of the box icons. If yes: I would prefer as it looks in the picture of post #1. Colors are brighter and better distinguishable.

Concerning the size of the icons: To my mind they need not to be smaller as in the picture of #1. They are o.k. (they are even better than smaller ones I would say).

But whatever you do: Please use the same colours, symbols etc. in both views (simple and advanced). Otherwise it will become completely confusing.

To my mind: no (in order to help you saving time). I am a very "conservative" user of software by myself. But people should be flexible enough to get accustomed to a different look in this respect (I do not even remember how it looked like in classic).

 

Well all the menus in Qt are about an A4 page of code, so re doing them would not be very much work.
The question is if that would help to move a significant amount of users to the plus build?

 

If it is easy for you: Could you post a picture with an excerpt of the menu classic vs. the menu plus? So that one can see directly the differences?

 

Sure here you go:









help menu is unchanged

 

update:




Now simple is the old simple
advanced is well advanced
and classic has the old menu scheme and enables the large icons as well as the pizza background, which can be set in the settings independantly if desired
one may may be want advanced with large icons just no pizza background


Please make some suggestions how to redesign the box context menu for the classic view

 

Why not merge classic and plus into 1 installer, then the user can choose at that point which version to run. Then after installation one can switch from classic to plus gui if one wants to try it. I guess it would be impossible to fully switch version with everything saved but a gui switch should be possible to accomplish. In that way classic users could get acquainted with the plus look and try it, of course with certain limitations since plus has more features than classic but thoose features could be inactivated, greyed out, but present and visible. Like teasers, this is what you can get sort of thing. This would simplify the transition for classic users to plus since they can try it out, sort of, and get the feel of it and get comfortable with it.

That would make me move to plus over time, right now, i rather use classic. I know many others who think the same.

One negative thing with plus is the small gui, everything is so tight it feels sort of messy. So a possibility to expand thoose gui:s in plus to get a better overview would be a good feature.

 

Thanks for providing the pictures, David. Well, personally I have no specific preferences (except from the more colourful icons I already mentioned). And perhaps a little bit bigger user interface in general, as mentioned by pb1, would be fine too.

 

I switch between Plus SandMan UI & Classic SbieCtrl UI. Plus installer installs shared components. Plus installer installs SandMan UI & SbieCtrl UI.

 

I recall reading somewhere that @bjm_ played a role in having SbieCtrl.exe bundled with plus

 

Hi David. For me personally, the best option is to keep Classic alive. If you can not do that or you don't want to do that, then I suggest you keep the new UI as close to the old one, same with settings and options.

Example 1: Under file, take the icons away. Please get rid of them if you can. And leave the labeling of the options as they have always being. Put back Terminate all programs, and get rid of Terminate all processes. Also, eliminate Pause Forcing programs and put back Disable Forced programs. Also, under File, if you can get rid of Disable file recovery, Disable message popup, and Maintenance that would be great. Why? We haven't needed maintenance in the past, other than for Removing a sandbox when it gets corrupted (this is something that happens rarely) and for nothing else. From my point of view, there is no reason to invent this setting. Disable messages popups. There are already various ways for disabling messages. Same with Disable File recovery. Why create a setting that is not needed. If you don't want to recover files in a session, you just don't. Or even better, you set up a sandbox that is not set to allow file recoveries and the user can use that one when he/she want to run Sandboxie without enabling the ability to recover files.



Example 2: Get rid of labels Simple view and Advanced view and put back what this options have always being called (Programs / Files and Folders). The refresh view thing I don't know what it is but if it what I think it is, no need.


Example 3: It seems you got rid of the list of Sandboxes from the Sandbox Menu. If you can, put them back. That is the perfect place to go into their Sandbox settings.




Last suggestion. For what is worth. I rather you keep icons as they have always being. Same size, same colors. No need to invent anything . I have bad eyes, but bigger icons would be bulky and a lesser amount of sandboxes would be visible when the user opens SBIE Control.

By the way, A few posts above this one, Pb1 made suggestions that are somewhat similar to the ones I gave you a few weeks ago. Almost word by word.

Best regards, David. Wish you the best.

Bo

 

Do not talk to me, talk to DX, since he thinks it is necessary to do some changes to get more Classic users to try out Plus version by doing changes in Plus so that the classic users get a more Classic feel. He, is obviously not satified with that now.

So what switches you do is not is not interesting to the subject at hand, because that can not create a satisfactory Kontroll-box copy, as in Classic version.

 

Yes I know but as bjm_ already said that is in a way already the case as the plus installer installs the sbiectrl.exe so the only thing to be changed would be to add an option to the installer to set this up for autostart and in the start menu.

And as I wrote in some other thread I'll prepare such a joined installer at some point, as mentioned in the other thread the installer will also merge 32 and 64 bit as well as an arm64 build, anyhow that's something for later.

And this will not solve the underlying issue, users of classic missing out on plus features. If I can, with very minor UI changes, make the switch for a significant amount of users much more comfortable than why not.

So lets proceed

do other users of classic share the sentiment that you don't what icons in the menus in the classic view?

The Maintenance menu is for the portable mode which classic never supported, that is why it is there and what for it is needed.
I will set it up such that in classic view it is only shown when sbie+ is actually runnign in portable mode
Actually this request shows me that you have never even looked into the maintenance menu or else you would known what it does

Simple view and Advanced view is nopt present in the classic UI, with those you switch between plus and calssic view
Programs is the view you see normally in plus and Files and Folders in plus is located an own window.
Would you want the Files and Folders view to be integrated into the main windows like in classic?

Refresh view refreshes the box content size as shown in the info column, as this is a time intensive operation it is done automatically but with delays and other safeguards against working to much, hence its useful to manually trigger a re scan when needed.

I could but i really rather not, you see this seams usefully when you have a hand full of boxes but becomes a mess once you have more boxes then screen height.
And an other issue is that you need to create all those sub menus which is wasteful on the resources, having only the context menu allows to have one menu which is just re used for every box over and over and over again depending on which box(es) are selected.

The same issue I had with the tray menu, this is why I embedded there a list disguised as menu entries which don't auto open but require the user to actively right click on them. And why I added settings to determine which boxes should be shown there.
For the tray, something solely mouse operated this is a good compromise I believe, but for a proper menu which one may want to open with ALT and them navigate with the mouse for example for accessibility reasons this would not work out so well.

To be blunt I don't see the use of this menu, it just opens the exact same menu you get when right clicking on a sandbox in the underlying list. What is the use of having redundant access to that menu?

do you really want smaller box icons? as you can see in the attached side by side screenshot booth UI's have the same row hight, so they booth show the same amount of information, only the icons are larger and leaving less unused space on the sights. Actually it might be not easy to make the QTreeView display different icon sizes :/

 

I must admit that I get more and more confused about builds, their functions, their user interfaces etc.

Offered for download (e.g. at Github) are Sandboxie-Classic and Sandboxie-Plus.

Now there is an intention by David to attract more users to change from Classic to Plus. Fine.

The main differences seem to be in two things: a different functionality (= more functions in Plus than in Classic) and a different appearance (= different user interface).

Concerning the appearance, Sandboxie Plus offers two views: Simple View and Advanced View.

This thread is dedicated to an initiative by David to modify the Simple View of the Plus version, "making look more like the classic UI" (see his post # 1).

Presumably there are already many users of the Plus version who were willing to get acquainted with the new look (and functionality) and who got accustomed to it. To my mind it's a little bit strange (or let's say unfair) that these users (the Plus users) now are possibly confronted with (more or less big) changes only because there is a quite small group of Classic "hardliners" who try to impose their ideas of how Sandboxie should look (and work). I think that's not o.k. in this extreme way as it seems to happen.

Just to avoid misunderstandings:

1. David's efforts to satisfy all users are worth to be fully acknowledged.
2. Of course suggestions for improvement should always be welcome and should be checked for possible implementation.

But this should not lead to the above mentioned situation that a minority of extremely conservative "hardliners" can dictate to the others users their complete personal concept (and philosophy) of how Sandboxie should look (or work).

A concrete example: Why shall "we" (the Plus users) loose the icons (in the "File" menu) again, only because a certain member does not like them? (The situation would only change if a clear majority wants to get the icons removed again.)

And by the way: Even if you, David, can satisfy all the wishes of the "hardliner" minority concerning the look. It remains the (more substantial, I think) problem that these people are not satisfied with the (extended) functionality of Plus too. So I doubt that concessions regarding the look would be enough to attract them to the Plus version.

So I share stapp's opinion in his above posting:

 

As I understand, David cleared up this concern in post #8: "classic mode" will be an entirely new mode, the existing "simple view" stays as it is.

I absolutely agree with the sentiment. But maybe we should keep in mind that technically the the classic and Plus builds already have basically the same functionality, only that the options are not exposed in the classic UI -- in this way the classic vs Plus debate is indeed essentially an UI question so it might make sense to offer such a simplified "classic look" in the Plus UI.

 

Okay. I'm not talking to you.
I've always installed Plus. I've always run Plus Advanced View. I preferred SandMan UI for several builds because SandMan UI was larger. I run SbieCtrl UI, at this time, because SandMan and SbieCtrl are now the same presentation. I don't need to navigate around Plus bells n' whistles because Plus & Classic now present the same.
I can always switch to SandMan UI for Settings...for Logs...for Maintenance.
I'm okay with Plus bells n' whistles regardless of whether I use or understand them.
I'm okay with Plus Advanced View. I like Plus graphics.
For me. It's about scale/font/presentation. I'd prefer a larger scale/font/presentation.
For me. It's about presentation more than content presented. #33.
Regards w Respect to all Wilders...to all Sandboxie+.

 

sorry, you are right. the icons for programs are that big, but the sandbox symbol is smaller in classic. maybe 16x16.

appreciated if you dont lose much time for it.

 

yup

















Also I found a way to reuse the same menu for multiple entries so in the next build there will be the full box list in in the sandbox menu of the classic view.


My approach is quite simple make everything an option that by default follows the view preset but which teh user can change to be always something else.
This way i don't need to care for the compromise, just provide the extremes and allow users to pick and choose every option themselves.

 

Good idea a Simple, Advanced or Classic view.

 

really nice

 

Hello David. One thing you need to understand is that some us don't want extra features. From my point of view, from our point of view, this extra features are undesirable. I/We are not missing anything. To some, less is better. I as others have mentioned this a few times but you don't want to hear it . When someone tells you that they prefer Classic, it also means that they don't the Plus features.

So, if you get rid of Classic (which in my opinion, you should not do just for the sake of switching users), make your Classic view option not only look as much as possible as the old version but (and as important) function as close as possible as the old version.

David, lets be serious about this. If you are going to call this version Classic, make it Classic. Make it as close as possible to the old version. Otherwise, is a white lie (you are calling it Classic but is not really Classic).

By the way, the guy who criticized my suggestion to get rid of the icons in the menu, shouldn't be annoyed by this suggestion. The suggestion only applies to Classic and as I understand it, he prefers Plus. So, he has no reason to be annoyed.

David, if you want Classic users to move to this new (potential) version, you should hear the people who are going to use it. Makes sense, doesn't it?

I have never installed Plus. Please leave Maintenance off Classic view (if you can not keep Classic as a separate version, that way Classic view feels and looks like the old version).

To me personally, this is not an important feature as I prefer navigating the Sandbox folder via File Explorer. But again, to keep Classic as close as possible to the old version, perhaps is best to keep the Files and Folders view. I know some people don't feel comfortable navigating the Sandbox folder so that would be for them.

To me, using that menu for going to Sandbox settings of any sandbox feels natural. I don't even think about it. That is where I go. Anyway, this is a change that doesn't make sense (to me).

To be clear, the size of the icons to the right of the picture, look perfect to me. They look identical in size to what we have been using all this years. Please, keep them like that.

Thank you for listening, David. I know I sound a little rough but I am an honest person and you are asking for opinions, If I am going to give you mine, I have to be honest and tell you what I feel and see. I would rather not participate in threads like this one but I am doing it for the benefit of Sandboxie.

Bo

 

Well you at least have a few features in classic that wasn't there in the 5.33.6 which you probably did not even notice.
For example the memory protection for unsandboxed programs that is sandboxed applications can no longer read the the memory of unsandboxed processes, a huge gaping privacy hole that is now plugged seamlessly Or the kernel object filtering mechanism which is also protecting unsandboxed processes form problematic accesses, etc...

But the other major privacy improvements need user interaction and configuration hence a new UI.
Like the ability to set C:\ as a write only path and allow only sandboxed access to c:\windows and c:\program files.

I'm not creating a new classic version just to clarify this, I'm adding a classic view mode to the plus UI. It is just an other function of the plus UI.

And for the most part I'll try to do my best to make this view mode look as close to the classic UI as I can.
But some things can't/shouldn't be adapted.

For example I see no point in creating separate Settings Windows looking like old MFC UI's
so the various options under Configure are just taking the users to the normal plus settings dialog with the right tab open.
As you can see in the migration guide I posted recently these tabs look familiar enough IMHO to intuitively know what to do.

Also the box options dialog is just the new plus one, I don't see a point in recreating the old one 1:1 as I never liked it in the first place,
that said I could look into replacing the tabs with a tree view that might be possible with reasonable afford. As well as trying to adapt the tab structure to be a bit more classic.

And there are things like the Simple/Advanced/Classic switch this must be some ware in the view menu, we don't want users to be able to switch to classic view and not back.

The nest biggest todo is the box context menu, how to design it to look classic enough without loosing all the plus functionality.