New Windows Explorer Icons

alexgieg

I’ve installed PA 2016 16.00.43, and I’d like to comment about the new Windows Explorer icons.

Basically, they’re very bad, specially in the standard Details view mode. The old icons were clear, sharp, with a defined shape and a small piece of text in them that showed the compression type at a glance. The new PA 2016 file type icons, on the contrary, are (as far as I can notice) fuzzy more or less square-y shaped colored blobs, and so indistinct from everything else that I have absolutely no idea, by its icon alone, whether I’m looking at a compressed file or if it’s some executable or a rare document type.

This is so bad that now, to find compressed files in a folder, I must click the “Type” column so as to sort files by type, and then scroll until I find the “PowerArchiver” entries.

The attached screenshot shows an example of how confusing this can be. Try to spot the compressed files at a glance. If you’re like me, you thought “the 7Z one”, and completely missed the .zip and the .tar.gz ones.

So, please, before releasing PA 2016 fix these icons so that they’re at least as sharp, immediately recognizable and good usability-wise as the previous ones were, or if that’s not possible, please bring back the old icons back until you can actually fix the new ones.

Thanks! :)

spwolf

@alexgieg:

I’ve installed PA 2016 16.00.43, and I’d like to comment about the new Windows Explorer icons.

Basically, they’re very bad, specially in the standard Details view mode. The old icons were clear, sharp, with a defined shape and a small piece of text in them that showed the compression type at a glance. The new PA 2016 file type icons, on the contrary, are (as far as I can notice) fuzzy more or less square-y shaped colored blobs, and so indistinct from everything else that I have absolutely no idea, by its icon alone, whether I’m looking at a compressed file or if it’s some executable or a rare document type.

This is so bad that now, to find compressed files in a folder, I must click the “Type” column so as to sort files by type, and then scroll until I find the “PowerArchiver” entries.

The attached screenshot shows an example of how confusing this can be. Try to spot the compressed files at a glance. If you’re like me, you thought “the 7Z one”, and completely missed the .zip and the .tar.gz ones.

So, please, before releasing PA 2016 fix these icons so that they’re at least as sharp, immediately recognizable and good usability-wise as the previous ones were, or if that’s not possible, please bring back the old icons back until you can actually fix the new ones.

Thanks! :)

Latest release:
http://dl.powerarchiver.com/2016/powarc160055.exe

Check them out… they dont have extension writing on them, but are hand drawn now at 16px.

mwb1100

@spwolf:

Latest release:
http://dl.powerarchiver.com/2016/powarc160055.exe

Check them out… they dont have extension writing on them, but are hand drawn now at 16px.

These may be an improvement, but personally I’d still like to be able to choose the old set somehow.

MDuss

HI.

For me I like the old Icons from Powerarchiver 2015 more.
In the Explorer I see at once which compression is used and the Icons have an better contrast.

Is it possible to bring the Explorer Icons from Powerarchiver 2015 bag to Powerarchiver 2016?

MfG
MDuss

spwolf

@MDuss:

HI.

For me I like the old Icons from Powerarchiver 2015 more.
In the Explorer I see at once which compression is used and the Icons have an better contrast.

Is it possible to bring the Explorer Icons from Powerarchiver 2015 bag to Powerarchiver 2016?

MfG
MDuss

everything is possible for our great users!

I am thinking about creating icon packs for formats with all of PA’s currently available icons so far (from 1999 until today). Main problem is making icon cache refresh itself but it should not be hard.

thanks everyone for suggestions!

MDuss

I have here an Virtual PC running with Powerarchiver 2015. So if someone wanted the Explorer Icons from 2015 I can pack them in an archive and postetd it here.

MfG
MDuss