326727 - Use favicon + small firefox overlay as task switcher icon in Windows

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Let the following represent the Firefox program icon:

  @@
  @@

When you've got n Firefox windows open in w32, and you use alt+tab to switch between them, you'll see the following in the task switcher:

.-------------------------------.
|      ....                     |
|  @@  :@@:  @@   @@   @@   @@  |
|  @@  :@@:  @@   @@   @@   @@  |
|      ''''                     |
+-------------------------------+
| Page Title - Firefox          |
'-------------------------------'

This ends up requiring the user to switch slowly between windows until the text at the bottom lists the one they were looking for. A way to help a user find the window they're looking for more quickly would be to use the website's favicon (the 32x32px image if provided on the site, or one that's zoomed up from the provided 16x16px image otherwise) in the task switcher, with the firefox logo overlaid in the bottom right corner.

Let the following represent the smaller Firefox overlay image @
With this solution, we'd see something like this in the task switcher:

.-------------------------------.
|      ....                     |
|  ##  :==:  %%   **   $$   ^^  |
|  #@  :=@:  %@   *@   $@   ^@  |
|      ''''                     |
+-------------------------------+
| Page Title - Firefox          |
'-------------------------------'

Comment 1

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

I can take this on in my spare time ;)

- we need a new API on nsIWidget that takes an image; for win32, it needs to set up an ICONINFO structure, call CreateIconIndirect with the right ICONINFO, store the result for DestroyIcon() the next time an icon is set (or at object destruction time), and SendMessage to change the icon.

- we need hooks in to the same spot that tracks changing the icon in the location bar to do the icon munging (overlaying the logo) -- use canvas -- and that needs to call the new nsIWidget API

- the icon munging function needs to be smart enough to recognize when, e.g., the favicon is a single solid color and to ignore it.

Because the favicon is usually small, we may want to generate the icon via:

- rendering the icon in the middle of a generic "page" and then adding the firefox icon in the corner

- rendering the big firefox icon and use the favicon as the corner icon

- checking the size of the icon and seeing whether it's big enough to use on its own (with an overlaid firefox in the corner)

Comment 2

[Stuart Parmenter]

this sounds like a bad idea.  when i go looking for firefox windows in my task switcher, i go looking for the firefox icon, not some random icon making me actually read the text.

Comment 3

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

You'll still have a firefox icon.

Comment 4

[Chris Wood]

I agree with Stuart - what other windows app does this? Maybe if it were a big Firefox icon with a small favicon overlay.

Comment 5

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Task switchers in newer versions of Windows give more prominence to previews/images of the actual window, so I'm not sure this is useful to spend time/effort on at this stage. Tentatively marking wontfix.