Sorry if this is already answered somewhere, but if it was I could not find it.
Is there a way to change the icon of PAM itself. I have 2 different drives with PAM installed, and have modified the drive icon to easily tell them apart in explorer. It would also be handy to be able to distinguish between the 2 different PAM's in the system tray as well (so I know which of the 2 is actually running at a glance).
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If you point at one it will display the drive's name and letter as well as how much space is free.
However, I agree with your suggestion. I would further suggest, as a possible compromise, that we be given the choice of a few icons. For example instead of grey, you ought to be able to choose red, blue, yellow, green, or purple, maybe other colors, so it's the same icon, but with different colors.
I have PortableApps on both my USB drive and my external hard drive. The hard drive stays at home (it's the big kind with the power cord) and the flash drive comes with me, but sometimes they're both in use at home. To have a blue-themed menu at home with a blue icon and maybe green/green on the USB drive would be sweet.
That's coming in the next release. A choice of colors. We may let advanced users change it to something else, but probably not via an option within the menu. It could get confusing support-wise so we'd only want experts doing it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I hope that doesn't mean the need for the 'experts' to have to re-compile the Platform.
I mean it would be an INI-only option or something, not a GUI in the menu... at the very least not automatically picked up from the autorun.inf (as that could confuse even more users). So an average user can't change it and then when they ask for support or are reading instructions online be told to click on the PortableApps.com icon and say they don't have one.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
with allowing users to choose a custom icon? I'm not so sure what's so "confusing" about it... you use the PAM icon by default, then if the user has any .ico files, they can go into the options and choose to use one for the platform. Then the icon changes. I don't see the potential for confusion here...
Normal users will rarely open the options dialog anyway, so in the end it doesn't really matter.
I think it has more to do with branding. It's like how you can't change how Windows looks without patching your uxtheme.dll file, or at least that's how it was a few years ago. Not sure if it's easier now and I don't know about Vista/7; that's strictly XP experience.
So maybe JTH & co. want to keep the concept of a circle with an arrow, but they'll let you change the color. You can have it red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, grey, brown, or black, but if you want to change it to something else, you change the brand identity.
That's just my guess.
But good news for me; I actually dislike the color red. Used to be my favorite color as a kid, but it's so loud, I prefer blue and green. When I used the R34 menu, it had a green theme on it. The one at home's blue (but my wife picked it out). Now that I've "gone official", I eagerly await the ability to change it.
It seems almost every second thread you mention this will be in the next version (awe not sarcasm). I know I am not an active member in the forums or in development, but I really appreciate all the work and dedication you put into this software. I program as a hobby, and so I have some idea of the work that goes into it, and to have such a great product coupled with your activeness in the forums is impressive.
Thank you
It amazes me that on the internet you can be anything you want, and yet so many people still choose to be idiots.
Imagine users having a broken .ico, or people changing their icon to say, the msn icon, and then forgetting about it. We would get lots of users complaining the PAM tray icon has disappeared, while, in fact, they made a mistake somewhere.
Behold, the DutchLander has arrived.
Grammatical errors are copyrighted.
I'd like to see the option of including a tray icon in the theme file.
With an ini line for UseThemeTrayIcon=true
That way "expert" users can have tray icons to match the menu skin.
All of the PortableApps.com applications use a specifically formatted directory tree.
In each case, below the application itself, there is an \App\AppInfo subdirectory that includes the "appicon.ico". You can stick whatever icon file you want there, name it correctly, and the menu uses it for the application.
Why not just do the same thing for the menu itself? Not complicated, no rocket science or quantum physics degree necessary for standard (default) or advanced use.
Jim
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
There is too much opportunity for confusing users with that.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Just make it please as a hidden option or whatever and don't mention it anywhere besides on this article, so people wont get "confused" and only people who really seek for it and search how to do it, can find and change it. I use 1 USB drive for a server with XAMPP and other is Multimedia tools and 3rd USB is my every day stuff. I hate having 3 exact same icons, its stupid!!! Let us have an option for changing it.
I think you are not making it not because is "confusing" but because you are afraid that people will change it and will forget your "logo" and the hard work you've put on the PAM is like you are not getting any credit. This is my believe, and I don't care if anyone disagree or agree! I just would really appreciate if there is option to change the "tray icon" Thanks!
-=|AlExAkE|=-