Community

« Back to Genie au Travail's community posts

Stop the notification in host

Links used in this discussion
MML, User (Posts: 1)
Oct 06, 2023 7:18:44 am EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Can we remove this notification at the host end? I'm using a free version of Viewer.
Stop the notification in host - 06 Oct 2023 07:14:05
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3033)
Oct 06, 2023 10:22:16 am EDT
Hello MML,

Here is more information about this alert type:
https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/first-connection-warning/
Bob Smith, User (Posts: 9)
Oct 12, 2023 4:35:47 pm EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Why did you abandon the implementation of hiding the warning popup on the viewer side?
Pauline, Support (Posts: 2863)
Oct 12, 2023 8:00:47 pm EDT
Hello Bob,

Thank you for your message.

Let us assure you that the feature's implementation was not discontinued - our developers are still investigating the best way possible to implement this feature, so it will definitely be included in one of our future updates. We will let our users know once it's available or if we have any updates on the approximate ETA of it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Let us know if you have other questions.
Bob Smith, User (Posts: 9)
Oct 12, 2023 8:46:23 pm EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Thanks for the reply Pauline, but you have been saying this for almost 2 years! You have introduced many features since then and released subsequent fixes for these newer features.

You have also unpinned/removed the thread discussing this promised fix. You introduced this warning 10 months after v7 was released. We are now at month 32. Not displaying the warning at the viewer side does not affect security whatsoever. It only returns lost usability.

I fully appreciate if it’s a financial decision, it’s your software and I’m sure it converts some free users. If the viewer side fix was only offered to appease the backlash, then please just own it, and stop wasting everyone’s time.
Pauline, Support (Posts: 2863)
Oct 13, 2023 8:06:10 pm EDT
Hello Bob,

Thank you for your feedback.

I understand your frustration with the notification banner, however, please note it wasn't our immediate priority, unlike, for example, Viewer and Host (Agent) for Mac and Linux which were just recently released for testing. As I mentioned in my earlier message, we're still considering to improve the banner, but our developers are still investigating on this possibility and the best way to implement this.
Since I'm just a support specialist, I can only assume that if it was purely a financial decision, we could've remove the free license beyond the 30-day trial altogether. However, it still remains fully functional even with the notification banner which you can click through.
In addition, please note that it's still possible to connect to your Host without seeing the notification banner - you can simply use Direct connection and you can even do so over the Internet, it will just require setting up some additional port forwarding as described here.

Hope that helps.
Bob Smith, User (Posts: 9)
Oct 14, 2023 9:25:16 am EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Thanks for your reply.

“we could've remove the free license beyond the 30-day trial altogether”

I’m not sure if that's more of a threat than a suggestion, but either way, that option would much more difficult to pull off with a product that’s been built on the basis of having a free version that converts users over time to paid plans. Far easier to gradually remove usability and introduce annoyances.

I’m sure you’re also aware that direct connection, and the additional configuration, is just not practical or even possible in the vast majority of scenarios. Even when it is, I wouldn’t advice opening ports and flagging your system for remote utilities usage.

The warning is rather cynically placed where almost all other application messages appear, including system tray popups and windows notifications. Yes, you can click through it, but only if you can properly read the message behind. Even a relocation would be helpful and far quicker to code.

To be honest, if this genuinely isn’t a financial decision, it’s far more worrying that it still hasn’t been fixed nearly 2 years later.
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3033)
Oct 15, 2023 11:59:04 am EDT
Hello Bob,

Sorry if my colleague was a bit straightforward explaining the reason why we implemented this message in the first place.

UPD: I modifed this forum message a bit. The notification won't be movable. We'll simply remove it showing on the Viewer side, just as planned. This will be available in the very next update.

UPD 2: For technical reasons, hiding the notification message on the Viewer side will only be possible if Host is running on Windows 10 version 2004 (20H1) or later.
Bob Smith, User (Posts: 9)
Oct 15, 2023 2:16:16 pm EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Thanks for your reply Conrad and that's great news. Let’s hope the next version isn’t 2 years away ;)

By the way, my frustration wasn’t with how your colleague responded at all. It was that the message hadn’t changed in any way and I’m sure they weren’t to blame for that. They were just forwarding the info provided to them.
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3033)
Oct 15, 2023 2:38:21 pm EDT

Bob Smith wrote:

Thanks for your reply Conrad and that's great news. Let’s hope the next version isn’t 2 years away ;)

Definitely not . A few other issues were fixed so we'll release them all in one update as soon as possible.
Submit a reply

* Website time zone: America/New_York (UTC -5)