Process Guard systray popups?

I just saw in another thread here a screen shot of PG giving a popup alert on the systray icon. I have never had PG do that. It does change color but I almost never see that either because I use transparency for the task bar and I can see my icons but just barely as they are almost transparent. I turned down transparency with my video card desktop manager a bit so now I see the blue/red color but only if I look there. Who looks at a color change in the systray?

So, I'm wondering why I have never seen a popup ....that I would notice. I have had so many applications fail because they try to install a driver or service or global hook and can't and I get no warning like the popup I saw in the other thread. So, how do I get those? Do I not get them because I turned off those awful XP popups you get when you first install XP Pro and before you go to classic style? Or do I not get them because there is something wrong with PG or I didn't turn them on in PG? I'm already having trouble with the PG icon disappearing sometimes. Maybe the two are connected?

 

Probably just disabled balloon popups with XP AntiSpy or a similar tool ?

 

Balloon alerts are checked in PG. I did some checking and I evidently followed Microsoft article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307729&sd=tech
and disabled them in the registry. Microsoft notes that there is no way to enable them just for certain applications. That is a shame! Microsoft should fix that! I would really like to have them for Process Guard but not for all the Windows XP junk. I was getting them very frequently and that is why I made the registry entry that disables them.

 

PG never shows any balloon alerts on my PC either. However, I am seeing balloon alerts from NOD32, so I know they are enabled.

 

I'm using Windows XP Pro SP2 and I get balloon alerts. I just wish ProcessGuard wouldn't turn red so much. Give me an alert and if I click on it don't turn red! For some reason I find the red ProcessGuard icon distracting. It's a nuisance having to open up ProcessGuard and close it again to get the icon to go back to being blue.

CaH

 

That's an interesting suggestion, thanks !

The only problem with it is that if you DON'T have balloon alerts, you won't be getting any warning at all..

The good thing is that the alerts should go away once PG is completely set up, unless you install a lot of (untrusted) software with protection enabled. Will think it over anyway

 

Well, I find this to be a real problem. I don't want balloon alerts for anything else. In fact, I don't want them for PG even if it were possible to enable them just for PG. I also never notice the color of the icon. I never look at icons in the tray or the task bar. I have transparency enabled on my video card at 60% so I can barely make out the icons if I look really hard. I want to see my desktop themr in the taskbar...not icons. Or I use full screen a lot and see no taskbar then. I need a nice big popup in the middle of my screen but I don't get those if PG has blocked a global hook or a driver install, etc.

I expect an application like PG to give me a popup, not a color change that I don't see, or a balloon alert when I cannot enable balloon alerts just for PG. Why don't we get a pop up? That is what should be happening. I never know when PG has blocked something until something doesn't work right and I have to figure out why. Eventually, I think to open PG and look at the alerts. It would sure be nice if I got a popup. This one thing is so deficient to me that if Kaspersky makes their GUI for KIS 2006 larger so I can read their alerts, I may switch to that as their process guard is good and they don't use balloon alerts...they do use silly colors on the icons though.

 

Hello Mele20,
I would absolutely HATE something like a big popup. The balloons and red icon work very well for me. I can easily see how others might want the option for something more easily seen or noticed though. Something like a big obnoxious box in the middle of the screen and/or a loud wailing siren sounds like a reasonable OPTION to me

 

I have to agree with FirePost. Only if PG's balloons worked for me.

But I like the way the balloons work with my NOD32. Since they don't work for me, I have to keep the PG icon visible to I can see the red face. But as someone already pointed out, rarely does one get a warning once it has learned what is already on your system. But for those rare occassions, I vote for balloons.

 

We are considering different popups like many firewalls use, instead of balloons. Rest assured that if/when this happens there would be an option to turn it off, maybe to use balloons OR popups. Seems the best way to handle things. Its now on the wish list for the next major update

 

They will not show up if nothing triggers them or if you unchecked the show balloon alerts checkbox on the alerts tab

 

Also note that "EnableBalloonTips" is a PER USER feature, in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. So if you changed the setting under one account, it doesn't affect others.. at least that's the way it appears to me

From the FAQ :

 

Yes, I think it is per user, but if I enable balloons then I get them for a bunch of stuff and I find that very irritating. I could put up with it for PG only because it isn't that often. I wish Microsoft would make it possible to enable balloons on a per program basis.

I'm glad you are considering other options and that there will be some user choice to be able to turn something off if they want. I would like the same pop when PG blocks a global hook, or driver install, as I get when something wants to start and PG hasn't learned it yet and thus pops up and asks me what to do. In fact, I would like the popup to ask if I want to allow the global hook, driver install, instead of telling me PG has blocked a global hook which is what the change in color of the icon does. The action has already happened. I'd rather be asked instead of it be default to block global hooks, driver installs unless I have already allowed them for a particular application in the protection tab.

 

Gee. I never thought of that.

Ditto.

 

So did my post help ??

PG uses the same method that any "balloon capable" program uses, so if ANY program can produce them, so will PG..

 

I didn´t read whole the thread, but I already mentioned this: PG needs to be able to produce its own popups, I always disable Balloon alerts in XP, but I still I have no problem getting alerts from example MSAS. So is this going to be changed?

 

In the portion you skipped...

 

You are not getting balloon alerts if you disable that in the Registry. MS has made it very clear that you cannot disable balloon alerts for certain applications and not for others. Making the registry change disables balloon alerts for all applications. Balloon alerts are not popups by the way.