Forums Feature Suggestions hide mIRC even from system tray

able to hide mIRC rather than just lock it from the system tray using key command like CTRL + <any char here>

I can't agree with this suggestion, as it would mean that the program would be unavailable for access while running, with the exception of via the Windows Task Manager.

not a very good idea

I'm hoping that you clicked on the wrong reply link, which put your reply to me, rather than the original poster.

alot of the people use the flat version of the forum, not the threaded one and hit the last reply button they come across ;-]

I'm undecided on this suggestion. I just don't think this is a good idea. If you have WinXP+ then any inactive icons will hide. This could lead to just more difficult problems such as backdoors and such.

I oppose this very strongly. =x

I've always used the flat version, that has never prevented me from replying to the correct person, rather than the last one on the list. Anyway, I can see more malafide reasons for wanting to hide the mIRC icon from the system tray than valid ones.

Then again, what people on this forum think isn't overly important, Khaled will implement it if he thinks it's a good idea & vice versa, regardless of what some forum posters think.

However im sure he reads our posts and takes the arguements said into account. Atleast i hope so or else we all might as well stop replying

This time I'm tagging onto the bottom as it's a general reply.

I don't doubt that Khaled reads the replies.

However, mIRC's user base is in the millions, people who don't even know of these forums. It isn't exactly correct for just a handful of people to have an important impact on whether the feature suggestion will become reality or not.

People who post here tend to think after a while that they should have more rights to decide what feature suggestion should be implemented and which not, but the truth is your opinion is hardly representative for mIRC's entire user base, and it is because of this that I say: don't overestimate the importance of your opinion on a feature suggestion.

You can help Khaled make the better decision though, by providing some cons and pros that he may not think of at the time.

Pro:
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* People who have multiple instances of mIRC running that provide different kind of purposes (bots) might want to prevent their system tray from cluttering up with multiple mIRC icons, could be useful for them. Yes, sockets are an alternative, but not everyone knows how to write socket code, plus it's a lot of tedious work. Hiding the instance would be multiple times easier.

Actually at some time I was running 3 instances for various purposes and indeed I did find myself wanting to be able to hide it, as I only need my "chatting" mIRC to be visible, the other ones can run their tasks in the background.

* For those people who want to have mIRC running like a service, this could be an option, mIRC would start at Windows startup and with a script be automatically hidden. As I'm writing this I realize this is kind of overlapping the 1st pro, but anyway...

Con:
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Could be helpful for people with malicious purposes to be able to hide mIRC on the client's computer and use it for their own benefits. This is a huge con. Obviously some criteria need to be met before this could happen, though history proves that it can work, otherwise there wouldn't be tons of those people getting exploited every day.

For me personally this isn't even a con, I'm not stupid enough to let myself get exploited. Additionally, there are already plenty of scripting features that allow people to get exploited, these are still there, and I don't think that "because it can be used for malicious intentions" should be the main reason to discard a feature suggestion. Khaled could have it disabled by default when installing mIRC, so that the user would manually need to enable this kind of feature.

Anyway, I'm sure there are more sides to this story, so go on and post why you think it would be a good/bad feature. But don't just state you don't like it without saying exactly why, or without taking the time to think of some positive uses for it either (yes that means you, oblivious). Also if the things you would like to point out have already been mentioned, then there's no reason to reiterate them either.

The attentive reader will have noticed I am now seeing more positive than negative arguments regarding this feature suggestion, in contrast with my first post. That's what happens when you give things more thought and not immediately click that "reply" button because you think you have something to say.

Night folks.

Personally, given that xp will autohide the inactive icon of a bot anyway, i can't see a large amount of use for the feature other than the small percentage using pre xp versions of windows (myself included) AND running instances of mirc they want to hide.

However, i also think the malicious use arguement is mute, but for different reason.
It can already be done so easily, in many different ways. Im sure many have noticed the dozens of mirc trojan/virus bots out there that install themself and run hidden already. I have never actually looked into them to see exactly how they do it specifically, but i can think of a number of ways just off the top of my head.

As far as people with mal intentions are concerned, i dont think they will care which way they need to do it, if they want to do it they will regardless.

Those with legit uses for a feature shouldn't be denied it on the sole basis that it could be of use to those with mal intentions.

oh alot of comments...

for me suggesting such feature is not for any mal intention... for myself, if ever it get implemented the benefit of it for me yes first, it will not clutter my systray. second, to avoid other user to mendle with what i do. (they won't know i run mIRC if they never check the task manager...)

Alternatively .... under the Windows Start Menu --> Properties --> [TaskBar Tab] --> Customise. You should be able to put in "always hide" (so that when you minimise mIRC, it is not seen on the task bar).

Cheers,

DK.

sadly, you just own a lot of people who replied here, ;(

(>_>) - Taking into account the previous posts, I agree that maybe it could only be set manually. (This changes my previous thoughts about this suggestion)

Start mIRC with another user account when the computer starts. (Planed Tasks)