Windows icon overlays - alternatives, improvements and thoughts?

Question

As Cody Gray mentioned when answering my other question here, Raymond Chen talks about how icon overlays are a poor choice here (note that the article is a year old).

The substantive argument against overlays is that only one can be shown at a time... so if two apply, which one wins? The specious argument is that there can only be 15 - which in my opinion is a design choice by Microsoft, not an argument against their efficacy.

With the changing topology of file:

• location
• management
• ownership
• synchronization
• replication
• ?????

I believe Files and folders need the equivalent of presence indicators to instantly identify their status.

What is an alternative to icon overlays that presents the same instant visual queue on the status of a file/folder? Maybe there needs to be a new model for icons?

Edit:

2010-12-14 The more I've thought about this, the more I feel that the idea that there can only be ONE overlay and that there's no way to make overlays work together is ridiculous.

Unless there's a technical reason you cannot have more than one overlay?

Consider (off the top of my head):

• You could segment the icon into 4 quadrants (upper left, upper right, etc) - this would allow for 4 overlays per icon. No inter-overlay adaptation required.
• You could stack overlays, and ONLY use priority to determine position (z-order anybody?). Allow the user access to User-space priorities, so the USER (you know, the person who the software is supposed to serve?) can choose which overlays matter. Rather than reserving a spot for an overlay, system overlays have the highest priority.

Answer 1

• If there is one condition needing an overlay, simply show the one overlay.
• If there is more than one condition needing an overlay, layer them all as suggested in the question. Then, the window manager would need to provide an extra UI element indicating that "there's more to know here". Perhaps it only shows up on a mouse hover? Anyway, clicking on that element could show details about the overlay conditions for those who REALLY want to know, but it would be hidden away for the 99.99% of the time when no one cares.