Polarity Overlay Window
  • 03 Jan 2025
  • 5 Minutes to read
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Polarity Overlay Window

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Article summary

Accessing 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 Integration.

You will only receive information from 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, click inside the search bar, enter the exact name of the entity that you wish to look up then hit enter on your keyboard or click the green search icon to the right of the text input field.

Alternatively, if an entity has been recognized by Polarity and is returned in the Overlay, you can click on the magnifying glass icon located to the right of the entity name to trigger an On-demand search for it.

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.

Quick Links can only be set up by a Polarity Admin. See Configuring Quick Links for more info.

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 all be managed from the Overlay window by clicking on the gear shaped Configure icon to the top right of the Polarity Overlay.

Integrations

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. 

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.

  • Flash Task Bar or Dock Icon

    • You can have the Polarity task bar or dock icon "flash" when the Polarity Overlay is minimized and there is a notification. Click the ON/OFF button to toggle between flashing and not flashing the task bar or dock icon.

  • 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 will notify you on 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".

  • Show Missed Data

    • If you are scrolled down in the Polarity Overlay, toggling Show Missed Data on will display a message notifying you of the number of missed entities and allow you to jump to the top of the Polarity Overlay.

  • Scroll to Highlighted Entities

    • If on, the Overlay Window will scroll to the top when a highlighted entity is hovered.

  • 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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