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Forum Discussion
Sharing of Overlay Icon/ Hack
Hi
I would like to ask why you at Dropbox dont find a way to share/merge the overlay icon wiht other app's using similar icons? instead of trying ot overtake them all...? breaking other apps for no good reason !
We now get a reminder from dropbox app, to reinstall, to fix settings as I moved dropbox icons lower down in the list of overlay icons.
We use other more important app's where we want icons to show, for example SVN, and it's rather anoying that; if dropbox get's it's will, it takes over the top position by inserting several spaces before the name... Rally ?
Since windows still have this limitation of 15 icons, why not reuse whatever is there? they all look more or less the same ? or limit the use to 4-5 icons, red/gree, blue is even actually plenty thats 3, or even just ask the user if they wish to use a shorter set of icons. Maybe even a 4'th one, that could be a generic one for all other stuff. Please consider solving it, so we dont have to keep pushing dp icons down on the list anyway, and thereby losing them all together. Maybe have a talk with ms, and have them solve it in their end, after all how hard can it be !
Thanks
Best regards
Hans Hansen
I've also found Dropbox very offensive in forcing its own overlay icons on top of other applications' icons. This problem has been beaten to death in other threads like this one and it appears the devs are not willing to address it. A workaround I used was to make a .bat file like this:
reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt01" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt02" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt03" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt04" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt05" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt06" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt07" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt08" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt09" /f reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ DropboxExt10" /f pause
and run it as admin whenever Dropbox pushed its own icons after an update. But still this was annoying.
Recently, I've applied a much better solution - I simply got rid of Dropbox and installed OwnCloud - the installation even on a shared hosting turned out to be pretty easy and I now I have an independed cloud storage. But more importantly, its Windows application installs only 5 icons into the registry so they can coexist nicely with the icons of my TortoiseGit installation. And if someone still doesn't want the icons then it's possible to uncheck shell integration in the installation wizard (I don't know why such a simple but important feature is ignored by the Dropbox devs).
Hello lemonjuice
as a paying Dropbox user and developper I also get really pissed by this.
You mention the owncloud solution: do you need to provide your own server for that, or is that also something where you can get a subscription? (I don't have and don't want to have an own server).
Tnx
Luc
Owncloud is the name of the open source software that you can install on your own server. However, there are many companies that offer cloud service based on owncloud and there you can sign up and get everything set up for you just like with Dropbox. I haven't used any of them so I can't recommend anything specific but the most obvious would be owncloud.online.
You could also look for Nextcloud services - I haven't used it but Nextcloud is a fork of Owncloud so I suspect its Windows client deals with overlay icons the same as Owncloud. I would recommend searching for "owncloud providers" and "nextcloud providers" and you'll find many options to choose from.
BTW, it's surprising how there's been absolutely no progress on this issue since the start of this thread. Instead, the other thread I mentioned got blocked and new requests for this are treated as if it's something new and the Dropbox team don't know what you are talking about. So far I'm happy now without Dropbox but perhaps I'll look for a free provider of owncloud/nextcloud for my small private needs because upgrading owncloud on a cheap hosting service is not easy (not supported by owncloud), probably installing a new version from the start would be easier.
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hey there Hans ( HansHansen) - how are you today?
Let me start by thanking you for the elaborate feedback - I'll pass your comments to our dev team for consideration.
Now, as I understand it, this issue is related to other applications (i.e. TortoiseSVN) on your computer that use the icon overlays and context menu functionality of your Windows' OS.
Moreover, as you successfully pointed out, Windows has a limit of 15 overlay icons that Windows Explorer can load while the OS reserves 4 for its own use. Our desktop application employs a number of icon overlays and context menus for added functionality as they allow the user to understand the state of a file or folder as well as be able to use other Dropbox features.
On Windows there is no option in the desktop application to turn them off and we would not recommend attempting to manually disable these overlays as they play a vital part in the functionality of the Dropbox application. As an example, imagine that you ran out of space on your Dropbox and are unable to sync or backup data to the web. In that case, we will display the red X icon on the files that haven't synced online. With the overlays disabled you wouldn't see this and may not be aware that your Dropbox is no longer syncing.
Information on how to check the number of icons and steps on how to resolve issues involving them can be found in this Help Center article under the "For our advanced users" section.
Having said that and as I'd really like to help with this, I was able to find a thread that another user had suggested in the past to counter this behavior (it includes managing your registry keys and removing the "write" permission to the "ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers" key).
In closing, I wanted to let you know that you can also upvote this feature request on this page or share your thoughts and suggestions with us directly through the "Share an Idea" section of our Forum.
Finally, you can also contact this 3rd party app (SVN) or even Microsoft as you mentioned, and express your thoughts and ideas to them as well.
I know this is not much of a help but I hope it clears some things up. If there's anything else I can do from my end to help, do let me know Hans.
Cheers!
Dropbox is dancing around the issue trying to make it like the problem is with other apps.
Dropbox used to take 4 shell icons (out of the max 15 available for EVERYONE in Windows). That was reasonable, and worked well. Now, they're using 10 (yes, 10!) icons (out of 15), 5 of which have always been used by Windows itself. How much room left for everyone else? Zero room. That's called being a hog.
Worse, it's interesting to note that with Dropbox constantly moving the icons back up in priority even if you change them, they always hog. So, an aggressive hog.
It's interesting to note that OneDrive has a few overlay icons, and look, they never get a chance. Coincidence? I think not.
So Tortoise users seem like collateral damage in a hogging war between Dropbox and OneDrive. Interestingly enough, OneDrive is the one actually playing nice.
Please Dropbox, be better than this. Go back to using 4 icons, it'll be fair and everyone will be happy, and that's all you actually need.
- Walter
Hey there Reg3 - sorry if I'm missing something here but could you send me a screenshot of where you see our desktop app occupying 10 shell icons on your Windows device?
Thanks!
No problem. Uninstalling dropbox.
Cheers!
Same here, deleting my dropbox, Toirtoise SVN is far more important to me than dropbox
