[Michael Adams]

I always had it set to not appear on startup, but I can’t find that option with the newest version.

 

Also, it would be very helpful if you would display the dates of the last update on the threads of this forum.  I searched a few pages deep to try and see if this question had been answered.  I would have saved a lot of time if I realized my search went as far back as a year.

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Michael Adams,

Thanks for posting.

For your post, are you referring to the ActivInspire Dashboard?

If so, this has recently changed to include the new updated dashboard which includes new features within ActivInspire such as the Activities.
If you’d like, we can raise an enhancement for the new Dashboard to be able to turn this off like in previous versions.

If you are referring to a different piece of software, please let me know.

We’ll raise your suggestion for the Community with our Web team to see if this is possible.

Thanks,
Adam

Promethean Support
Case 01025643
 

[Adam Udell]

Hi Adam K,

I know I am talking about the Dashboard (little rocket ship) that now comes up at start up and really slows down my machine and interrupts my work flow.  PLEASE  put in the checkbox so I can stop it from popping up like in the last  version!

 

[Michael Adams]

I was referring to the Activinspire Dashboard.  I really liked the option of being able to disable it upon startup of Activinspire.  Thanks!

[Jarrad Promethean]

Thank you for that Feedback.

 

We will raise this with our next level support team to pass along as a possible enhancement to the ActivInspire software, which would be implemented in a future release of that software.  Such a release would be announced on our Support Website and on this Support Community.

[Alicia Peterson]

Hi,

I just searched the community for this topic and wanted to add my vote for an option to not display the dashboard on opening as well!    The dashboard is fine, but I prefer to not have to close it every single day.

Thank you!

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Alicia Peterson,

 

Thanks for posting.

We welcome all feedback and suggestions on ActivInspire.

We’ll add your request to the current development ticket with our software team to review and hopefully implement in the future.

Thanks,
Adam

Promethean Support

[Soenke Müller-Voigt]

Hi, I also want to vote for a QUICK solution to disable the Dashboard on start-up again.

I get lots of negative feedbacks from the teachers at our School and I can’t offer them a solution.

So it’s up to you to solve this really quick with a small patch.

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Soenke Müller-Voigt,

Thanks for posting.

We will add your feedback to the development ticket.

If you would also ask for those teachers who’ve commented on this to help post in response to this thread, we can add these too to increase the awareness of this request.

Kind regards,
Adam

Promethean Technical Support

 

 

[Gary OConnor]

I too have a lot of disgruntled teachers asking me if I can disable the dashboard. Please give us an update soon.

 

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your reply post.

Do you know how many teachers have provided you with this feedback?

We can help to raise this with our software development team however numbers of users affected by this can help to increase the awareness.

Thanks

Adam

Promethean Support

[Gary OConnor]

Hi Adam,

We have the latest Promethean 86″ 4K  ActivPanels in 33 classrooms, in use by about 40 teachers throughout the day;  I’m at an academy in Qatar.

 

Thanks

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Gary,

 

Thanks for posting.

I’ll raise these numbers with our software team.

We’ll announce any changes on the Support Community, you can subscribe to the announcement section on the community to be notified.

 

Thanks

Adam

Promethean Support

[Glenn James]

Hi,

Any chance you could set the default to not display the dashboard at all? Staff have no idea what it is for and really aren’t interested in the dashboard. They just want to open the app and crack on with the lesson.

Glenn

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Glenn,

Thanks for the post.

We’ll raise this with our development team too.

Thanks

Adam
Promethean Support

[Troy G]

Hello. I would also like to request to have the Dashboard pop-up disabled ASAP. It is very, very, very annoying. Please let the user determine how to use the software. I don’t mind having to push the blue rocket ship button, but forcing the pop-up by default, which wasn’t the default behaviour before, was a poor choice for the user. Not being able to disable it is a poor choice by the software designers.

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Troy,

Thanks for posting.

I’ll relay this request on to our software department.

Thanks

Adam

Promethean Support

[Shon Hargis]

Please add me to the list of people who would like an option to disable the Dashboard. It is very annoying!

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Shon Hargis,

Thanks for posting.

I’ll be sure to add to the ticket.
Feel free to subscribe to the Announcement section on the Community for future updates.

Thanks

Adam

Promethean Support

[William Muth]

Not being able to disable the dashboard is very annoying.  We have this deployed on hundreds of laptops in our school district.  It is very confusing for the younger students and annoying to the teachers who use this application every single day.  I hope an update is coming soon!

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi William,

Thanks for posting.

We will add your request to the development ticket.

Feel free to subscribe to the Announcement section on the Community for future updates.

Thanks

Adam

Promethean Support

 

[Troy G]

Has there been any progress on this ANNOYING addition to the software?

Every user has posted that they don’t like it in this thread. The original complaint was on August 1st. We are nearing November 1st in a couple of weeks.

While no expert in software development, I know that making the new feature “optional” or at least “no on by default” is NOT a difficult coding chore. Honestly, it’s probably a before lunchtime project on any given day.

Frankly, as someone that uses the software EVERY day, the pop-up/change to how it was completely SUCKS. The lack of action by the development team sucks even more.

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Troy,

Thank you for your post.

We do acknowledge all feedback that is given to our development teams and this is looked at in sprints in the softwares development cycle (not just ActivInspire).

I have raised your concerns to our internal teams. We apologise for the inconvenience caused for not having this option to disable by default.

Kind regards,
Adam
Promethean Support

[Margaret Schmitten]

Hi,

I see this thread is a few months old.  Any progress or an estimated time frame?

Thank you

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Margaret.

Thanks for your reply.

We haven’t got an update yet however I will pass your request onto the development team to increase the awareness of this request.

 

Kind regards,
Adam

Promethean Support

[Andy Mangrum]

Hello, I would also like to add my concern for not being able to disable the dashboard at startup. Turning this off should be a standard feature. It simply slows down the teaching process, which is never a good thing. Does the development team ever reply back with “We hear the concerns” or does it just go into a black box? It seems this concern has been raised to them for 4 months now with no reply. I understand it can take time to update software, but a reply would be nice letting us know if they intend to resolve this or if it is not even on the roadmap. I don’t want to keep waiting for something that is not coming.  Thank you!!!

[Wendy]

Hi Andy,

Thank you for your thoughts, I absolutely understand where you are coming from and why it might seem like a long time. The Software updates are scheduled to specific time-frames and usually happen twice a year, so that is where the several months will come from.

As for the Dashboard option:  All the recent new features for ActivInspire can only be accessed through the Dashboard, so this is why the option to turn it off was initially not included to provide the best visibility for the updates.

This is definitely an option that is being developed for a future release and I’d be happy to add your vote to it 🙂

Thank you!

Wendy

[Troy G]

Hello. Today is December 11, 2019. I use ActivInspire every day. I, like many other users that have teken the time to post in this thread, continue to be annoyed EVERY DAY. This thread was started on August 1, 2019 at 2:00 am.

>>The Software updates are scheduled to specific time-frames and usually happen twice a year, so that is where the several months will come from.

Unfortunately, this is a poor excuse and shows a lack of understanding. Disabling the dashboard at startup is NOT a difficult, complicated, labour intensive or time-consuming programming chore. Insinuating things don’t get fixed/changed unless they happen to catch a bi-yearly update window in the schedule is insulting and not really an honest answer.

This issue has been a customer/user fail. But the bigger fail has been by the inaction taken by the programming team.

[Wendy]

Hi Troy,

Thank you for your thoughts. I can certainly understand how it might be perceived that way.

The “Software updates are scheduled to specific time-frames and usually happen twice a year, so that is where the several months will come from” part of that statement was aimed at bug fixes and supporting new operating systems like the Catalina update for Mac.

For Enhancement requests, like the disabling of a Dashboard specifically implemented to highlight new Features added to the ActivInspire software, will happen at Promethean’s discretion.

The software is offered at no extra cost with our Promethean Displays and while I absolutely appreciate that clicking away the dashboard once at the start of the software is just an extra step you could do without, it just does not have the same priority as, say a text input issue.

Every bit of feedback is carefully recorded and collected and given our full attention, it’s definitely not falling on deaf ears. Please do keep sharing your thoughts and experiences as this allows us to keep reviewing the software and make changes as and when we are able.

Thank you!

Kind regards,

Wendy

Promethean Technical Support

 

[Zak Khalifa]

Make sure ActivInspire is closed.

Found a workaround – browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\Activ Software\Inspire\workbench

Rename activdashboard.exe (ie activdashboard.old.exe

Reopen ActivInspire – active dashboard is no more. This also means you can’t use active dashboard anymore.

Of course updating future ActivInspire may enable this.

[Michael Adams]

Thanks for the “fix”, Zak.  I was really surprised that the latest update didn’t address this issue considering the number of comments on this board.

[Glenn James]

Thanks for the workaround Zak – just pushed it out to our 20+ teacher computers using PDQ deploy free version:-

ren “C:\Program Files (x86)\Activ Software\Inspire\workbench\activdashboard.exe” “activdashboard.uselessgarbage.exe”

Works a treat.

Glenn

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi all,

Thanks for your feedback, we are actively reviewing the feedback and providing this on to our software teams to review for further consideration.

Whilst renaming the dashboard executable file will help to stop have this appearing upon launch of ActivInspire, you do loose out of the other features that have been implemented through the new dashboard such as access to future updates which requires the dashboard.

For any customers that are reading this post that haven’t yet posted their feedback relating to this enhancement, please let us know and we will continue to add to our development ticket.

Thanks

Adam

Promethean Support

 

[ken tyrrell]

+1 to request the ability to disable the ActiveInspire dashboard on startup.

We have about 30 ActiveInspire users.

-Ken

[Wayne Reese]

Dashboard pop-ups are annoying for some, but for myself, I’ve found it to be functionally problematic.  Closing the Dashboard immediately upon start-up often causes ActivInspire to also close.  In addition, the new Dashboard hasn’t been very functional.  Sometimes, it does not allow me to create a New Flipchart, or call up a Recent Flipchart listed on the side.  So at times, I have to load up ActivInspire, then wait a few seconds, then call up a flipchart by clicking File -> Open, then wait, then work with Dashboard in the background.  Any use of ActivInspire requires me to call it up at least 15 minutes in advance.  Calling it up sometimes requires multiple tries.

This was never an issue until the new Dashboard.  Disabling it is my saving grace.

[Eddie Promethean]

Hello Wayne,

Thank you for reaching out and giving us your feed back. We will add this to the enhancement request and development ticket

Best regards,

Eddie

[Cherish Eagen]

Seems that others have had this update before my school received it. Not being able to turn off the dashboard and having it pop up every time I log on is becoming quite annoying. Now I’m seeing that teachers have been asking for the option to disable it since the beginning of the school year. It seems to me like this should have already been corrected at this point. Please send out a patch soon!

[Craig Promethean]

Hello Cherish,

We have added the request to our enhancement team.

I appreciate this can be annoying. We are hoping to have the issue resolved as soon as possible.

I can’t provide you with a date or time scale but it has been reported to the enhancement team.

Thank you,

Craig

[Troy G]

I’m continuing to post into this blackhole of a forum to pretend that your software developers actually care for their users.

I just updated to ActivInspire_v2.18.68238_AppOnly_setup

I will be reverting back to a previous version. The version I was using was ActivInspire_v2.16.67968_AppOnly_setup

1. Dashboard pop-up still exists. (almost a year in)

2. Edit > Questions on Current Page (Ctrl + Shift + Q) freezes my work laptop.

3. I can’t resize the browser which I usually have docked on the left side. I can resize to the right to make it bigger, but I CAN’T resize to the left to make it slimmer. THIS IS A PROBLEM. Why take away this functionality???

4. The folders inside the Resource browser are now HUGE compared to before.

I usually wouldn’t be so direct to criticise because my hope is for the development team to actually think about the users and fix things, however I’ve lost hope in both the speed of answering complaints and fixing things. I’m sorry, but you have failed.

[Krista Promethean]

Hi Troy,

We do appreciate your feedback and a few of your suggestions are already open enhancements that our developers are aware of.

Kindly understand we don’t have a timeline of when these enhancements will be implemented though please check the What’s New at Promethean Support on our Support Portal at https://support.prometheanworld.com/ for updates.

Please be aware, while we do have an open enhancement request to our developers regarding the dashboard, the purpose it to notify users of important updates and when new features are added.

Regarding the issues you are currently having with your computer freezing, please ensure that you are running the latest version of Java on your computer. You can reference the link below for more informaiton.

1315

Please understand that this is not an issue that we are aware of or can recreate on our end. Please provide us more details regarding your issue and we can assist further.

1. What operating system are you using?

2. Do all ActivInspire versions have the same issue?

3. Aside from freezing, are you getting any errors?

Please note that the browser can be resized from all sides if you un dock it from the side and have it “floating”. It can be resized and then pinned back to your desired location by dragging it back to the side.

While there is not a way to change the size of the folders and content of the resource browser itself, you are able to change the icon sizes at the top of the browser if this helps any. To do this, go to File > Settings and click on the Layout tab. From there you can change the icon size to your liking. There is an open enhancement request submitted to our developers suggestion to allow the text and folder size to be adjustable.

We do appreciate your patience in these matters when it comes to suggestions and when they may be implemented.

We hope you find this information helpful.

Thank you,

Krista

Promethean Technical Support

[Troy G]

Krista,

Please understand that this is not an issue that we are aware of or can recreate on our end. Please provide us more details regarding your issue and we can assist further.

1. What operating system are you using?
Windows 10 x64, Intel Core i5-6200U, 8 GB RAM

2. Do all ActivInspire versions have the same issue?
I won’t install ActivInspire_v2.18.68238_AppOnly_setup on another computer because of issues I have with the computer at my desk. Why would I?

3. Aside from freezing, are you getting any errors?
Freezing. I also get excuses about development on a year old thread and inaction.

Please note that the browser can be resized from all sides if you un dock it from the side and have it “floating”. It can be resized and then pinned back to your desired location by dragging it back to the side.

This is completely wrong. I can’t resize it, docked left or float like I could before I updated.

While there is not a way to change the size of the folders and content of the resource browser itself, you are able to change the icon sizes at the top of the browser if this helps any. To do this, go to File > Settings and click on the Layout tab. From there you can change the icon size to your liking. There is an open enhancement request submitted to our developers suggestion to allow the text and folder size to be adjustable.

Again, this is incorrect. I folders got BIGGER in the last update. Changing the icon sizes does not make the folders smaller. The folder sizes got BIGGER with the last update.

We do appreciate your patience in these matters when it comes to suggestions and when they may be implemented.

How much patience is required? Universal complaints from this thread 1 year ago, for something the developers added and didn’t give the option to hide or remove that made the user experience worse.

We hope you find this information helpful.

It wasn’t because some of the information was incorrect and the same excuses continue.

I hope this response comes off as blunt and annoyed, because that is how I feel.

 

[James Promethean]

Hi Troy,

Thanks for your post.

We would like to contact you directly to discuss your queries.

Please keep an eye on your email for our message.

 

Thanks

 

James

Promethean Technical Support

 

[billtowne]

Let me add my name to this long list of people that hates the dashboard. Yes, after opening up ActivInspire hundreds of times, we know that there’s a resource library. Please let us disable it.

 

There’s no reason to reply to this message, I can see what you are going to write above dozens of times!

[Dennis Lansang]

It has now been more than a year since this question / thread was started (original question was posted in August 2019, and it’s currently near the end of November 2020).

There is absolutely NO indication that Promethean is even interested in changing this option.  I suppose that is what happens when education software is designed by non-educators.  Notice that there has not been even a single request to KEEP this useless “dashboard”.  The replies all say practically the same thing: what Wendy (Moderator) wrote on Dec. 2019:

“For Enhancement requests, like the disabling of a Dashboard specifically implemented to highlight new Features added to the ActivInspire software, will happen at Promethean’s discretion.

The software is offered at no extra cost with our Promethean Displays and while I absolutely appreciate that clicking away the dashboard once at the start of the software is just an extra step you could do without, it just does not have the same priority as, say a text input issue.

Every bit of feedback is carefully recorded and collected and given our full attention”

Essentially, they will do what THEY want to do, and that the daily extra step is considered to be nothing but an inconvenience that we, teachers, just have to suck up because the programmers don’t think it’s worth further consideration.  I am absolutely disgusted by such a reply from these arrogant programmers.

Terrible.  Any other company would have allowed and implemented the ability to disable this stupid splash screen.  “Easy-peasy” it even says on the “Dashboard”.  Disgusting.

[Adam H Promethean]

Hello Dennis,

Thanks for your post. I will make sure this feedback is passed internally to the relevant team.

Please be aware that when we raise an enhancement request, this is essentially a request for the change to be considered by our development team. There is therefore no guarantee that the request will eventually be implemented.

The more people request this option to be removed, the more priority it will receive when the development team are considering which enhancements and fixes to implement in future versions.

Kind regards,
Adam H

[Troy G]

I just wanted to check in and continue to voice my displeasure with the lack of taking this thread seriously by the developers. As someone who uses the software every day at work, it’s annoying as F%#^!

Also annoying, is how we can’t resize the browser anymore so it is barely on the screen. Now, I can resize it between 20% and 40% of my screen. I used to be able to resize it to about 5-10% on my screen on the left side, but that functionality was taken away.

Since I’m ranting, I dislike that I can’t see animated .gif thumbnails in the Resource browser.

I also dislike the boiler plate,

“Please be aware that when we raise an enhancement request, this is essentially a request for the change to be considered by our development team. There is therefore no guarantee that the request will eventually be implemented.”

This is false. It’s not an enhancement request, because the pop-up feature was ADDED, and it wasn’t an enhancement. Basically the developers CHANGED the functionality for the worse and didn’t provide an option to revert or setting to have it not show. What software ADDS something that pop-ups up OTHER THAN ADVERTISEMENTS.

It’s more of a FIX THE DEV FAILURE request.

This whole experience has been a total FAIL.

[Charlie Promethean]

Hi Troy,

Thanks for your ongoing patience, and for continuing to provide suggestions for how you feel the software can be improved.

I can assure you that any such feedback is passed along to our software development team, and although it is not always possible to modify the software to suit every user’s specific needs, these are all given serious consideration.

The option to disable the dashboard pop-up was originally removed as the functionality of the dashboard was expanded to also announce whenever a new version of the software is available.

However following the feedback on this thread, a task exists to look into to reintroducing a ‘Disable dashboard auto start-up’ setting, but we are unable to confirm when this might make it into production.

We can also confirm that we have raised an enhancement relating to animating the Gifs within the Resource Browser, and this will again be given due consideration.

Thank you again to all who take the time to post on this community to share their opinions on the software.

Regards,

Charlie

[Meb Ninja]

So annoying – just adding my voice here!

LET US DISABLE THIS *censored* DASHBOARD!!!

This should not be a big deal …

[Craig Promethean]

Hello Meb,

Thank you for your post.

We have raised the request with our Development Team.

Kind regards,

Craig

[Hans Meyer]

Please, it is really annoying. It is hard to believe that this request started in 2019. I guess most people do not take the effort of registering just to complain about the dashboard. Me, for instance, kept being annoyed for half a year before writing this post. I don’t see the reason why we aren’t able to turn that thing off. Just imagine you’re standing in front of your class, you start that flipchart in order to show that very impressive picture that’s starting the lesson and introducing the topic (I am a geography teacher in Germany). Guess what happens…the dahboard pops up and the teacher moves to the smartboard closing it. What an interuption. And why displaying a tiny part of the menu in a big window anyways. Please! Let.Me.Turn.The.Dashboard.Off.

[Jordan Promethean]

Hello Hans,

Thank you for your forum post.

We understand how it could be frustrating to have the Dashboard window suddenly impede the view of your flipchart.

As some other users have contacted us in the past with similar concerns, we will raise your request with our ActivInspire Development Team. This will let them know additional users have requested a feature to disable the Dashboard pop-up when ActivInspire starts.

In the meantime, please keep an eye on our Announcements forum to ensure you will know as soon as a new version of ActivInspire is released, and whether this change is implemented when a new version has been released. You can view the announcements at this link here. Please also feel free to subscribe to these notifications.

Kind regards,

Jordan

Promethean Technical Support

[Margaret Schmitten]

Oh please, this request has been ignored for TWO YEARS, either do it or don’t.  Stop with the same b.s. answer.

[Mark P Promethean]

Hi Margaret,

No request gets ignored by Promethean by any customer. All instances where this feature has been asked for, have been passed onto the development and product management teams, for them to determine whether the feature should be introduced.

You will be pleased to know that is my understanding that ActivInspire version 2.22 will introduce a checkbox that will enable the dashboard to be stopped from launching.

We do not yet have a firm release date for ActivInspire 2.22, but the current target (subject to change) is sometime in early August.

Thanks

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi all,

I am pleased to announce that ActivInspire 2.22 has been released today that addresses the Dashboard on launch feedback.

This can now be disabled and re-enabled via the Rocket ship icon near the documents tab:

 

[Troy G]

Better late than never would be appropriate, but I have another issue.

I went through the steps of downloading version 2.22. I tried to install over top of my already working installation of ActivInspire. After installing the “update” the software DOESN’T WORK. I restarted my computer, tried installing again. I tried starting the software from a project file and also from the ActivInspire icon. Nothing. I now have to revert.

I would like to caution all users in this thread NOT to download version 2.22 if you don’t have time to revert or troubleshoot. It did not go smoothly for me.

Computer: Windows 10, 64bit

User: Frustrated with your software (as usual)

[Adam K Promethean]

Hi Troy,

We’ve not experienced any issues with numerous installations, fresh and on top of current installed versions of ActivInspire.
We suspect that this is more than likely an isolated incident which should not put other users off updating as this helps to address additional fixes and enhancements which you can read here.
If you or any other user does need further help, we’d recommend contacting Promethean Support directly.

[Author]

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