Disable notifications for specified programs?

I was already getting all-too-frequent GW notifications for various programs that are trusted favourites of mine - all their updates and virus-check results -, and finding them a nuisance because of their frequency, being like the little boy who kept crying ‘Wolf!’, making it difficult to be very attentive for new or unknown processes that definitely require my attention.

But since I recently upgraded from Office 2010 to the 2019 version, I’m getting an absurd frequency of notifications for activities and updates of that suite’s Click to Run process, considerably degrading the usefulness of GW’s potentially extremely useful notifications.

What I very much want is a facility in the GW settings for specifying a list of processes (each with full path) for which notifications wouldn’t be displayed - both the balloon notifications and on the GW tray icon.

Any possibility of this being implemented as a reasonably high-priority issue? I’m really serious about this ‘crying “Wolf!”’ issue, and would be operating much more efficiently (far less time-wasting distractions) and safely with a much-slimmed-down number of notifications.

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Hiding noisy application alerts has been talked about for years but this is another feature (really a group of related features) we’re still waiting for, sigh.

I’d like all app changes logged but I don’t need to be notified of all alerts for specific apps like the Microsoft Office apps mentioned above. But, AFAIK, logging and alerts are still linked.

Apparently, app alert muting was actively being worked on in 2016:

See your app alert request from 2014. :smile::

Also from 2014:

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Thank you for the lowdown, @Remah. Good to know that the issue is at least notionally being addressed, but a bit disturbing / frustrating that nothing has come of this for some years. It’s such an obvious issue that needs addressing. Who needs to be gently chivvied about this to get some swifter action on it?

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I use the same Office software and I haven’t noticed many notifications. How often are you seeing them?

I guess the issue for us is due to the complexity of implementing the UI for this… so we’ll keep thinking how we can allow users to disable notifications for potentially hundreds of different apps while keeping the app reasonable to use.

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I really like the fact that GlassWire logs when apps are updated. So may developers have gone to the silent automatic updates that things can get updated that you are not aware of. The logging helps with troubleshooting any potential issues related to an update.

I sure miss the good old days when everything asked if it was OK to update first!

Maybe it is possible to set some frequently offending applications to not auto update? Otherwise I could see this being a useful feature request!

I also use the GlassWire firewall to block internet access to many apps that don’t really need it, except to check for updates or phone home with telemetry.

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Hi, zzz00m
I totally agree with you in regards to GlassWire logs when apps are updated. It’s very helpful information to keep one informed on version changes, and phoning home.

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@Servo_GlassWire, I can’t give you clear figures, but for a while the MS Office Click to Run Client was causing multiple notifications most days - but has now been silent for about a week. Other programs causing a lot of notifications are the Kerish Doctor real-time system maintenance suite (by far the best of its type that I’ve ever encountered), which very frequently updates program components as well as its databases, and also Process Lasso, Hard Disk Sentinel, and a whole raft of Windows processes, which get me a flood of notifications after Windows updates as well as triggering notifications more sparingly in the ‘inter-update’ periods. With more occasional updates of other programs, that means at least a moderate number of notifications each day, and often a lot - the effect greatly aggravated by VirusTotal scan results each coming in separate notifications. I do wish those notifications could be incorporated into the associated program notifications. It’s all far too many ‘innocent’ notifications making it difficult to have one’s attention drawn to the ones that really need attention. Virtually all the notifications I get are ones I don’t need to see (but of course would still want to be in the full logs so one knows fully what’s going on if one needs to investigate something).

Maybe this would be unworkable, but one way to keep everyone happy would be to have a user-created ‘Trusted Processes’ list, and popup notifications for processes in that list be suppressed, BUT a count of those on the tray icon be shown separately from the count of items not on the trusted list - in GREEN, upper LEFT, while the count in red, upper right, would then be of items not on the trusted list. – Of course I have no idea how easy that would be to implement, but I think that would be the best arrangement for me as a user.

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It’s just my observation, but perhaps you may have too many 3rd party utilities installed, that all require auto-updates. Modern Windows is pretty much self maintaining now, so that, plus a few manual utilities from Windows Sysinternals https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ should be all that you need to keep Windows happily running well.

I have a very well tuned Windows 10 system, and a long list of manual tools & utilities, and I rarely receive update notifications from GlassWire beyond Windows updates and anything that I manually update or install, except for my antivirus, web browser, Dropbox, etc.

@zzz00m

…but perhaps you may have too many 3rd party utilities installed, that all require auto-updates…

…But then again maybe not! :slight_smile: We each have our own particular modus operandi and outlook upon system maintenance and security, and I’ve no doubt that some people who consider themselves very computer-experienced may not see eye to eye with this funny little man here (who isn’t entirely a novice himself)! :slight_smile:

– Well, of course, too many third party utilities for my liking do require auto-updates - but even if we ignore those, the issue I’ve raised would still be very relevant because of the many Windows processes that are triggering GW notifications.

I’m not seeing that, which is why I mentioned that it may have something to do with your “unique” system configuration. Either way, carry on as you wish, as I do generally agree with your request. Just trying to offer some helpful feedback, not criticism.

This is a bit off-topic anyway, but I’d gently point out that those Windows processes are there not of my choice. That is Windows (10, current version). Is @zzz00m suggesting that somehow I’ve configured Windows to have all those Windows processes triggering GW notifications? I think we’d better get back onto topic. :slight_smile:

Look, I said I generally agree with your feature request, so that was on topic. I am not attempting to troubleshoot your Windows, as that part remains entirely up to you. Please feel free to disregard my other comments.

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Is there any movement yet on disabling notifications for trusted programs, including regular Windows processes? It would be SO helpful! At the moment it’s as much as ever a pain in the butt, getting so many unwanted notifications. MS Office 2019 is still the biggest nuisance because it so frequently auto-updates, and when it updates, several different processes each trigger notifications of not only having changed but also ‘first internet access’. But Windows updates themselves usually trigger a number of such notifications.

Incidentally, such time as that is implemented, it would be by far the simplest for the user to have the option for each trusted program of specifying ‘include all child processes’, so avoiding having to choose the ‘don’t notify’ option for each individual trusted net-connnecting process.

Perhaps we should just make this feature part of the Incognito or “hide app” feature so Incognito/Hidden apps give off no notifications at all?

If I understand correctly, Incognito mode doesn’t log traffic for apps for which that mode is selected. Therefore disabling notifications for trusted programs could not usefully be included in that mode, because in most cases one would still need to see the traffic for those programs - It’s just the notifications for trusted programs that I don’t want to see.

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@PhilipGoddard

Thanks for your feedback. I will share it with our team.