Simon’s Blog

Java 6 Update N aka “Consumer Java” is approaching release.  It’s looking insanely great.  Really. However, there are a few small, but important details that would improve the user experience if they were fixed/changed.   Here’s one request, relating to the Java icon in the system tray.

Currently, when Consumer Java starts running in a web browser - i.e. an applet starts - a Java icon pops up in the System Tray at the bottom of the screen.   This is a bad idea because it’s distracting for the person using the browser. It moves their focus of attention away from the web page they were looking at to the System tray.   Now, there is an option in the Java Control Panel to stop this icon popping up. However, it doesn’t work.

So here’s how I think this should be:

• By default, no Java icon should pop up when Java starts running inside the browser
• The option to toggle the display of Java system tray icon in the Java Control Panel, which is currently broken, should be fixed so that the few people that want to see the icon (e.g. developers, when debugging an applet) can do so.

Seems that others agree…