As the X column tends to be closed usually (one doesn't want to enable/disable by mistake) would it be possible to have a way to indicate whether an app or rule is disabled, by either dimming down the line or doing all the characters in red or something?
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Not exactly what you're asking, but while the "X" column is normally closed, if you have any apps (or devices) disabled, the column will show by default--so you'll know when you open the page. (I assumed they considered that good enough.) Is that different from what you're seeing?
I hadn't noticed that, just thought I'd left it open 
Well that's better than I thought but I dunno there is still something a bit unintuitive and inconsistent about it.
The inconsistent bit is you can't go into a disabled rule even to view it, but somehow it's still evaluating whether it was paused or the predicate is false and putting that in red next to the name of the rule. Wouldn't it be better to have (Disabled) in red as an override status string?
The unintuitive bit is the check mark - usually that means Enabled in every other context. I'd actually rather see the enabled rules with the tick and the disabled rules without a tick.
I'd rather not really have the X column opening itself anyway, probably for the same reason it doesn't open itself if you don't have anything disabled.
I doubt that will change. The purpose of disabling is to prevent any app (or driver) code from running, and the app UI is generated by code, so that would defeat the purpose. I do agree it's sometimes inconvenient, but...I guess that's the price. 
(History lesson: While people do find various uses for it now, it was originally introduced for troubleshooting runaway apps or drivers, and it hasn't changed much since.)
Along the lines of app code not running, the "paused" or "required expression false" (or mode name, etc., depending on the app) is really set by the app code, so there's no also no way to update that when disabled. It's also technically part of the app name, just formatted with HTML (by the app) to make it look special, but there's no platform-level "status" feature apps can display things in like that. It's just each app doing so on its own with a bit of trickery to make it look like there might be. That would be a nice platform-level addition, IMHO, and perhaps "disabled" could be displayed there or in some other hypothetical new status area. This seems like the crux of your request, and I've seen other similar requests in the past. Maybe some day!
One last note: you seem to mostly mention rules. For those, stopping is nearly the same as disabling if you just want to cancel or unsubscribe to any exiting schedules or subscriptions, including triggers. (Differences would include that a restarted rule would re-initialize everything, whereas an un-disabled rule will have basically just been frozen in time; and a rule can be restarted from another rule without your involvement or knowledge other than having set that up in the first place. And: the app code running isn't blocked at the platform level, so it can still update the app name to show "stopped" or whatnot at the end.) Maybe pausing or stopping would be closer to what you want? Disabling, of course, has the advantage that it's a platform feature (and not all apps have something built-in), but for rules it shouldn't be necessary unless you can't get to the real app UI.
Well I have completely misunderstood what disabling does then. I had assumed it turned it into something dead that could not be evaluated or run until re-enabled. So disabling only stops it being editable? I was using the feature so I could try out rules when helping other people with theirs etc rather than have it run unwantedly on my system. Testing stuff out etc. OK will use stop or pause in future.
No, it sounds like your understanding was correct.
It just might include more than you thought, since the app UI also comes from the app code, and that's why it can't be opened (and the app name, where some apps put a pseudo "status indicator," is also set by either code or the user so also can't be changed by the app when disabled).
For rules in particular, they already have the ability to basically stop everything already, so you don't necessarily need to disable them at the platform level.
Well I didn't actually want to edit it in a disabled state (unless it's going to allow us to change the name to My Rule (Disabled)) I only mentioned that for dramatic irony effect
Ok so if the text in the name field is just arbitrary I'd love it to add or substitute (Disabled) for (Paused) or whatever it was saying when it meant something.
PS yeah mainly I am talking about Rule Machine
The issue is that the name/label is set by the app code (and what you're talking about isn't actually anything special, just part of the app name some apps chose to display all fancy--yes, it looks special). And disabling prevents any app code from running. So, the app can't do anything about it--none of its code can run.
Perhaps the platform itself could display some of this differently, possibly including a "real" way to display this kind of info. That's what I was getting to in my second paragraph a couple posts above.
Displaying the row in a "disabled" shade would do it for me. That requires no text substitution.
Today I learned you can disable apps just like devices. Thanks!
