This is a consumer usability issue with the Mantis B19 Java Update support.

In Windows Update, when an update is available a "balloon help" message
comes up over the system tray saying you should "click here" to download
the update. When you click on the balloon help, it brings up a Windows
Update dialog that lets you start the download.

Java Update looks similar but behaves very differently.

When a java update is available, a "balloon help" message appears over
the system tray saying (roughly) "click here to download". But if you
click on the balloon help nothing happens. The balloon help vanishes,
but no dialog comes up. You need to click on the Java Update icon in
the system tray to cause the dialog to come up.

This isn't just a theoretical issue, I ran into this problem the first
time I tried to use Java Update. I carefully clicked over the word "here"
in the balloon help. That's obviously what I am supposed to do, right?
I was genuinely surprised that nothing seemed to happen.

I think this is a double usability problem. First, naive consumers will
guess that they should click on the balloon help "here" word. Second,
experiened consumers who are familiar with Windows Update will "know"
that they should click on the balloon help. In both cases nothing bad
obviously happens and they may easily think that they have been successful.

I think we need to catch the button clicks on the balloon help and
use them to bring up the Java Update dialog box.


###@###.### 2003-03-31