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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...
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey 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!
- Rich
Super User II
No problem. Uninstalling dropbox.
Cheers!
Same here, deleting my dropbox, Toirtoise SVN is far more important to me than dropbox
