UI usability of VBox 7/on removed "Restore Snapshot at Power Off"

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

I know this bug report will fall of deaf years but I don't care. I just want to file it so that you knew that not everyone is happy with what you've done to VBox 7.

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I hear all the wrong reasons to remove the feature, so let me give all the reasons why it worked before, why it was never an issue and why the current "Edit a config file manually" approach is wrong:

1) Absolute most people don't use the VM shutdown feature. They press "Start -> Shutdown" in whatever guest OS they are using instead. Using a VM shutdown dialog in just not as convenient.

2) The checkbox is in your face. It's not hidden, it's right there and it's hard not to notice it. People who were burnt by pressing it accidentally maybe did it once in their entire life. I cannot imagine making this mistake more than once.

3) Now instead of a UI feature, I need to edit a config file and then remember the discard feature is enabled. WTF? What if I use it the feature intermittently? I.e. I need it today but I don't need it tomorrow? Go edit the config file again and again? Really?

4) It literally takes a couple of lines of code to hide it by default from all the users and have it enabled only for those who want to use it.

Now, whenever I want to discard the last state of a guest, I need to switch it off, go to snapshot management and hit all the right buttons (an extra ten buttons if you had your guest on any other mode, e.g. Details vs Spapshot management). Multiple actions which were available as a single click of a mouse earlier.

Your UI team is doing all the wrong stuff it seams.

Here's what you could have done ​instead: - not a single comment from anyone on the team, meanwhile the guest menu is a total incomprehensible illogical mess.

Also the main actions switcher under the main menu (Welcome, Extensions, Media, etc) terribly sucks. Also the guest actions pop-up menu is terribly inconvenient (Details, Snapshot, Logs, Activity, File Manager). Why is it hidden by default BTW? Why it's only visible on mouse hover on?

People have 1080p, 1440p, dual monitors configurations - you cram everything such a way you need to constantly mouse click, click, click.

The guest actions are all easy to show on the screen simultaneously or make them some sort of tabs. A single click to switch between tabs.

Likewise for the the main actions switcher - why, why, there's a drop-down menu where there's so much space on the screen? VBox is a desktop application and it now looks like the worst UI-wise mobile app.

I presume you have designers/managers on your team who have to make stuff up to get salaries and in the end we get a horrible usability-wise UI where you need to click often while making sure your mouse movements are precise. This is nightmare.

UI in VBox 5 was a ​ton more easier, faster and more effective to navigate.

VBox 7 is the absolute worst in terms of UI (I started using VBox around version 3 I guess) and of course user input is not necessary because "managers" and "designers". Have these people formally run any usability tests? I doubt it. Something was designed as "cool" and "modern" and poor programmers bent under because they had no choice.

Of course this salty rational logical message will never reach the responsible people. Not the first time. The PC software industry has done everything to destroy usability over the past 15 years, starting with an abomination called Windows 8.

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And now the linked message:

1) I feel like these three items could/should be moved elsewhere, e.g. to File or Machine as they have nothing to do with "View".

2) The Input submenu is so empty I guess it should be best moved to "Devices".

3) Speaking of "File". This is not a file!

File -> Preferences should be moved to Machine.

File -> Reset All Warnings should be moved to Machine or View.

File -> Close should be moved to Machine or View.

IOW get rid of File altogether.

4) For the main application window - please move "File -> Tools" submenu to its own menu item "Tools". Will save a lot of fine mouse movements

Thanks!

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

Related #21183

[Freddy Willemsen]

I second the motion to restore this functionality.

[HDS]

I use a VirtualBox-VM for secure Browsing. Therefore the time to browsing should be short and done by one click and cleanup after using should be easy done. Till Version 7 a VirtualBox Fedora-Guest which starts from a checkpoint and falls back to this on closing realizes these requirements perfectly. Therefore I strongly prefer the restoration of the functionality by an additional radio-button perhaps with warning about data loss.

[PeterCWatson]

I would also like to see this functionality restored. After using VirtualBox for many years, immediately after upgrading to VB7, I noticed that the option to "restore current snapshot" was missing, and this prompted me to create an account and raise the issue (which was closed as a duplicate of this one!).

This was a great feature, and removing it is very annoying. I have several VMs set up as test platforms and regularly start them, carry out a test (e.g. installing or running a program), then close the VM to restore its clean "snapshot" state. Having to go back to the main UI and restore the snapshot manually is an inconvenient, time-consuming extra step with the risk of losing work and data if I don't check that I'm not accidentally rolling back the wrong VM.

[Boxy]

Due to concerns of being dangerous as one could overlook the checkbox, it may be a separate fourth radio box "Revert to last snapshot" as it is a unique way to end the VM.

As selection of one radio box excludes the selection of the others, it's unlikely someone selects the snapshot fallback by mistake.

[LaurentG]

I fully support this last proposal of Boxy to have a separate fourth radio button.

But what is important is to restore the ability to restore snapshot at exiting VM, in a GUI VISIBLE WAY (and not with a hidden extradata....), whatever the exact GUI (check box as it was in v6 or newradio button)

[romibi]

I want the option to revert to the last Snapshot on close depending on the situation back as well.

In my current use case there's like a 60% chance I want to revert and a 40% chance I don't want to revert.

The checking/unchecking the checkbox was really easy. Now I have a multi step process to shutdown the machine if I want to revert …

A readonly disk or a config-file change is not an option as there still is a 40% chance that I want to keep the changes!

[AmirPK]

Adding my vote to restore this functionality.

Another possible option is to provide this checkbox without saving its checked state. That is, user will need to select this checkbox every time (whenever required) on the "Close Virtual Machine" popup - while closing a VM.

Although, it will add a small step but will avoid accidental loss of VM state as well.

[mrabinov]

Please kindly re-add the "revert to previous snapshot" option like it was in VB6. The change in VB7 is adding 4 additional mouse clicks (to revert manually) to my daily routine.

[Russw]

Removing the option because some may inadvertently leave it checked is no different than providing the VBoxManage option that some may inadvertently forget to turn off. But worse, without the visual check box, you don't even have a visual reminder of what is going to happen when you power off the VM. Please return the option.

[xfrthe]

I fully support this last GUI solution proposed by Boxy, to have a separate fourth radio button with the option to revert.

[Simon Rozman]

I too miss this option.

However, I have a different suggestion to solve this. The confirmation dialog could have no radio buttons or checkboxes. Just a few push buttons:

[  Save the machine state  ] ← Most friendly to VM
[ Send the shutdown signal ]
[  Power off the machine   ]
[ Revert the machine state ] ← Least friendly to VM

[          Cancel          ]

No need to persist the last user selection. One click to achieve any choice. This approach was also recommended in Microsoft UX guidelines when Windows Vista Task Dialog was introduced.

[jontron]

I also find it extremely annoying that the "restore current snapshot" checkbox is missing. Instead of checking a checkbox, it take several extra clicks to do the same action previously performed by one click. If your are running frequent tests and like to restore to a previous snapshot after these tests, these extra clicks over a days work can really add up! The solutions proposed by Boxy and rozmansi are both good solutions, and are a lot better then just removing to option all together.

[mrskman]

Restore the functionality and bring the option back, please!

[pozzeur]

This change makes 6.x the last worthwhile versions of Virtualbox. Gonna have to start looking to different solutions if this doesn't get fixed.

[DaleCoba]

Ditto. Our daily drivers are "frozen" VMs that are disposed of after every use and restored to the current snapshot for next use, except for when the VM is being intentionally updated, which is roughly weekly for some VMs and only when the guest addition needs to be updated for most. For usability, we need the default to be, as it has been for the last decade-plus in VirtualBox, for the VM on closing to restore the current snapshot. Without this checkbox being both available and defaulting to the last state, version 7 is not usable for us in practice.

[snap76]

Please bring back this feature or a solution to quickly restore on exit. I used it every day and I clearly wasn't the only one. I subscribed just to say this. It is really unpleasant this function is gone.

[trish]

Just created an account just to say this, I can not stress how much this removal of one small check box had made my life difficult, please restore this function.

[Klaus Espenlaub]

We're considering to restore the functionality, with one change: the checkbox state will not be remembered from the previous close (always unticked). This addresses the complaints that people lost data when they accidentally kept it ticked when they didn't mean to. We can't keep unsafe defaults.

[Simon Rozman]

@klaus, that would be a reasonable compromise. Thank you.

[Boxy]

I continue to believe that "Revert snapshot/machine state/however-you-call-it" is a separate method to end a VM, therefore isn't an "opption" - even as, in the current implementation in V6, it doesn't matter which one of the other methods you select, the result is always the same.

So the only way to differenciate its function clearly from the other three methods to bring a machine down, in my opinion, would be a fourth selection in addition to "Power off", "Shutdown" and "Save machine state".

And I don't know why "Power off" is seen as a normal shutdown method - you must believe in journaled filesystems and database recovery. In 30 years of systems administration, I used "Power off" as the last resort in error recovery, not as a normal shutdown for a production server.

But it's your decision and getting back the check box is better than nothing...

[edi3]

We strongly dislike that this feature was removed. It creates a big hassle for one major use case for us. The inconvenience is enough that we now look for alternative software. The available workarounds to mimic previous behaviour (config textfile editing and/or console commands) are more complex and therefore more prone to user mistakes which increase the risk of serious data loss or other errors in production use.

Please add the feature back as a separate action in the GUI window, as people above have wisely suggested, not as the old checkbox option for "power off". Ideal: change the radio buttons to four regular buttons, to enable single step action instead of the two steps radio button + OK. Second best: add a radio button named "close and restore last snapshot"

If you think that you must take steps to protect some user from inadvertently using this feature then add a checkbox in preferences that users have to tick once to make the "close and restore last snapshot" action visible in the GUI.

[dgasaway]

My immediate thought when reading the reasons the checkbox was removed was, "Why didn't they just add a fourth option?" I'm not sure why that would be considered inferior to reintroducing the checkbox but with an unchecked default state. That still adds steps and opportunity for error for those (including me) that used this feature often.

[tony_si]

I want to add another vote for bringing back this feature, I used it more often than not at the end of a VirtualBox session. As others have said above, simply removing the behaviour where the checkbox state is remembered from the previous session would solve the problem of people accidentally losing their current session.

[DaleCoba]

Better yet, by default remove the checkbox, perhaps allowing the option to display it, but even with the box not displayed, allow the default of the function to be selected in settings. In some use cases, the admin may not want users to be able to select to save changes and will want the user's VM to *always* be restored to the previously saved snapshot on shutdown.

[robandroll]

I couldn't agree with this more. Our sales team will be negatively impacted by this and rely on that checkbox almost entirely. Please add the ability to configure this.

[galitsyn]

Hi guys,

VirtualBox 7.0.8 was just released and available at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. This issue should be fixed there. Could you please give it a try?