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Submission details

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Network icon animation?

Submitted by xombie on January 3, 2009 to Annoyance, Usability

Remember in XP, the LAN/Wireless icon in the system tray used to glow, to denote activity?

I don't mind that they rolled all the network adapters into one icon.

The problem is, it gives no indication of activity. So you could be sitting there, waiting for a video to load, and you wouldn't know if the connection is working or not. You have to go through a few clicks to see the network traffic status.

I know there's a gadget for it, but this would be a hundred times better.

Make the little monitor glow when the network is active.

Medium

High

Not fixed

Discussion (11 comments)

litemininyuszika wrote on January 3, 2009, 11:31pm

+/-0
I think Vista's tray icon may be better than this, but it may be also good...

xombie wrote on January 4, 2009, 12:10am

I don't know, I haven't used Vista much.
Just need an indicator of network activity, that's all.

starways wrote on January 4, 2009, 1:03am

Promote promote promote!

I just changed to Vista and this is bugging me also as I no longer can check quickly if I have a connection problem or if only the browser or site is not responding anymore.

The "Enable animation" option is ridiculous as even when switched on it is not giving any status feedback (just blinking sometimes even when there is constant network activity)
.
It should at least give the XP style feedback when set to "animate on".

.Chris wrote on January 4, 2009, 2:25am

Even then, the currnt tray icon is just to light. I can barly see if I have 4 bars or 5.

It needs more contrast

Paralityk wrote on January 4, 2009, 3:49pm

@.Chris
Maybe there is something wrong with your monitor xD?
I have no problems figuring out is it 4 or 5 bars... I even notice it when i don't look at them ;)

nyp wrote on March 17, 2009, 1:45pm

You can no longer make the network computers "glow" in build 7057.

xombie wrote on March 17, 2009, 1:58pm

You couldn't earlier either, right???

nyp wrote on March 19, 2009, 3:23am

I dug up a build 7000 virtual machine and the option isn't there either.
I think Microsoft will say "use gadgets and task manager for this" but meh...

Tattva wrote on February 9, 2010, 5:47pm

OK, guys. I stumbled upon something that is the closest we seem to get to a solution to this issue: Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7 (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/NetworkIndicator.aspx).
It adds a small icon to the systray that looks like the one we all know from XP.
Nothing more to say, I guess.
Best regards

.Chris wrote on February 9, 2010, 7:26pm

the icon looks like its from vista

xpclient wrote on August 31, 2010, 9:49am

This was a very useful longstanding feature since Windows 95 that got removed. Shame on you Microsoft. +1. What's wrong with providing *USERS* an option like Vista did ?

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