Polarity Overlay Window
  • 30 Dec 2024
  • 5 Minutes to read
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Polarity Overlay Window

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Article summary

Opening the Polarity Overlay Window

The Polarity Overlay Window can be accessed in a variety of ways.

It can be accessed through the menu bar of the Polarity configuration window, the system tray/desktop menu bar, or the Polarity Configuration Window's right-click context menu.

The Polarity Menu Bar

The Polarity application menu bar is located at the top of the Polarity Configuration Window.

To access the Overlay Window:

  1. Click on the Polarity Overlay menu item

  2. Then select the Polarity Overlay menu item

The System Tray or Menu Bar

Windows

The system tray is usually located at the bottom of your screen (near the clock).

  1. Right click on the Polarity icon

  2. Select the Polarity Overlay menu item

macOS

The macOS menu bar is usually located at the bottom of your screen.

  1. Click on the Polarity icon 

  2. Select the Polarity Overlay menu item

Linux

The system tray appears at the top of the screen. 

  1. Click on the Polarity icon

  2. Select the Polarity Overlay menu item

The Polarity Advanced Settings Window

Right click anywhere in the Polarity Advanced Settings Window or the Overlay Window.

Polarity Overlay Layout

The Polarity Overlay contains a search bar that allows you to quickly search for entities you are subscribed to in Polarity. It is organized in a card format with the entities (what was recognized on your screen) in bold at the top of the card and contextual information on that entity below in a tag format.  The contextual information displayed in an entity's card will be the same as the color that has been set for that particular channel or integration.

You will only receive information for channels or integrations you are currently subscribed to.

Each card within the Polarity Overlay is composed of two different sections. One being the Summary view, which is the first thing present in the Polarity Overlay that consists of the entity and tags.

The second portion of the card is the Details view, which contains additional information from integrations that have returned data for a particular entity.  You can open the details view by clicking on the card.

Details view

To see more information about an entity click anywhere in the Summary portion of the entity card.

Search Entities in Polarity

The Polarity Overlay contains a Search Bar that allows you to quickly search for entities across Polarity.

To run a search:

  1. Click inside the Search Bar.

  2. Type the exact name of the entity that you wish to look up.

  3. Hit “ENTER” on your keyboard or click the green Search icon to the right of the Search Bar.

Using Quick Links

From within each entity card in the Polarity Overlay you can access Quick Links. Quick Links are dynamic URLs for linking to 3rd party websites, they can be applied to a specific entity type (e.g. a link could be displayed only for IPv4 addresses, or hashes).

Click on the More Actions icon within the entity card and select the Quick Link you want to navigate to.  Quick Links will be opened in your default external browser.

Minimizing or Closing the Polarity Overlay

Closed - Closes the Overlay to your system tray.  The Overlay window will only be restored when an on-demand search is executed.

Minimized - Minimizes the Overlay Window to the taskbar.  The Overlay window will only be restored when you hover over a highlight or run and on-demand search.

Polarity Overlay Configuration

The Polarity Overlay Window Preferences, Integration settings can be managed from the Overlay window by clicking on the gear shaped Configure icon to the top right of the Polarity Overlay.

Subscriptions View

Integration colors, settings and subscriptions can be edited from the Overlay configuration page. 

To do this:

  1. Open the Polarity Overlay Window

  2. Click on the Configure gear icon that's to the top left of the Overlay window.

You will now be on the Subscriptions page where you can edit integration subscriptions, colors and settings. 

Discover more integrations

Clicking on this link takes you to Polarity's external Integrations web page that displays all of the currently available integrations that Polarity has to offer.

Manage Integration Subscriptions

To do this:

  1. Open the Polarity Overlay, click on Configure Overlay

  2. Select Integrations.

  3. Once there, click the ON/OFF toggle of the desired integration(s).

Manage Integration Settings

In addition to managing Integration settings from the Web interface, users can also make these changes from the Overlay window by clicking on the green gear shaped icon to the right of the desired integration.

To do this:

  1. Open the Polarity Overlay, click on Configure.

  2. Select Integrations.

  3. Once there, click the green settings wheel of the desired integration(s).

See Managing Integration Settings for more info.

Manage Integration Colors

To do this:‌

  1. Open the Polarity Overlay,

  2. Click on Configure ,this pulls up the list of integrations with the colors that have been set.

  3. Navigate to the integration you wish to change the color of and click on the button that is labeled with that integrations abbreviation.

  4. Select color of choice.

More Settings

The More Settings link can be used to navigate between the Overlay Subscriptions page, Preferences and the view currently configured Shortcut Key Settings.

Preferences

  • Export

    • Allows users to export all current overlay information into a CSV file.

  • Pin Polarity Overlay

    • If enabled, the Polarity Overlay will be present on your screen at all times.

    • If disabled, the Overlay window will pop up whenever an entity is recognized then go away after a set period of time.

    • See Open Overlay Duration for more info on configuring how long the Overlay window remains open for.

    • Toggle this setting on and off using the ON/OFF button under the Pin Overlay Window setting.

  • Always on Top

    • The Polarity Overlay can sit on top of all the other windows on your screen ensuring that you are always aware of important context being delivered to you by Polarity.

    • Toggle this setting on and off using the ON/OFF button under the Always on Top setting.

  • Overlay Opacity

    • In the Overlay Opacity setting card drag the slider to your preferred opacity level.

    • When dragging the bar in the setting you will see the opacity change in real time.

    • By default, the opacity is set to full.

  • Suppression Duration

    • Suppression is the amount of time that will pass before Polarity notifies you of an entity it has recently seen.

      • Increasing this value will help reduce the total number of notifications.

      • Decreasing this number will help ensure that notifications are most relevant to what is on your screen.

    • For example, if the suppression value is set for 30 seconds and you see the IP Address "127.0.0.1" on your screen and receive a notification, you will not receive another notification for this IP address until at least 30 seconds later.

    • To set the suppression time, bring up the Polarity Overlay and select Settings. From there navigate to Suppression Duration and input the amount of time suppression should be set at in seconds.

  • Overlay Open Duration

    • If the Polarity Overlay is not pinned, you can adjust how long it stays visible before hiding itself.

    • Navigate to the Overlay Open Duration setting and input the amount of time (in seconds) that the window should stay open.

    • This setting has no effect if the Polarity Overlay is "Pinned".

  • Pulse New Entity Data

    • Pulse the background color of entity cards when they contain new data. Minimum duration value is 1 second.

Shortcut Keys

Clicking this menu item only allows users to view currently configured Shortcut Key Settings.

Click HERE for info on configuring shortcut keys.


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