Hi @WINSTEP

Can you please add an option to change or completely disable the delay and slide / fade animation before a taskbar thumbnail preview is shown in NextStart.exe?

So I need the animation to appear immediately when the mouse is over the icon instead of waiting 500ms - 1second to see it, please.


Maybe it's easy for you to add a hidden option in the registy so advanced users can change the delay:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinSTEP2000\NextSTART

something like
"DwmThumbnailDelay"="0";
"DwmThumbnailAnimation"="False";

Thanks
!
I really need this option since I use the thumbnails a lot and I need to wait each time to switch from one application window to another

Heck, even a 1 sec delay is *nothing* in real terms - slow down a little is the simple answer.

A registry option really wouldn't be on - too many people would be liable to mess things up. I don't recall anybody ever raising this issue before, so I think it would be unlikely for Jorge to add it to the 'to do' list, but who knows...

I have to agree with liam11 on this. One of the first things I do on a fresh Winstep install is turn off Balloon Tooltips and disable all animations. I don't need or use them, but if I did that delay would drive me insane. I wish I could turn them off for modules and the taskbar also. Maybe the "Disable all Animations could be tweaked to include taskbar thumbnails."

The wonderful thing about Winstep Xtreme is the great number of settings available. I know it can be a pain in the arse for the moderators having to deal with the countless questions this brings up, but it was a real selling point in my decision to purchase the program.

Each time I see a new version of winstep / nextstart, I download it to see if turns off taskbar thumbnail animation and the delay to show em when I've "Disable All Animations" option checked


For productivity it's a must, I hope the developer can consider this since will be almost solved changing the interval to 0, but will be better (even for cpu usage) to have fade effect turned off too.


So as you said, will be great to have the thumbnail animations and delay to show it included in "Disable All animations"

Thanks Nezbit

I did some research on the internet and I found this:

How to Change Delay Time to Show Taskbar Thumbnails in Windows 10

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/21005-change-delay-time-show-taskbar-thumbnails-windows-10-a.html

I haven't tried it myself, or if this is what you are looking for, but the info from TenForums is usually reliable. Remember to always backup the registry before making changes. I don't know if it will work for Windows 11.

Jorge has spoiled us with all the available settings, but new features give us a reason to renew our subscriptions.

Found it for Windows 11

Change Hover Time to Show Taskbar Thumbnail Previews in Windows 11

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/change-hover-time-to-show-taskbar-thumbnail-previews-in-windows-11.6366/

Thanks for the info but the problem is NextStart it's not reading the same registry key as explorer.exe when showing the thumbnails;

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

"ExtendedUIHoverTime"

Instead the delayed time in seconds/ms is hardcoded/configured in Nextstart.exe

I hope the developer can read this post

@Nezbit - Useful info that. Must have a look around there when I get a chance to see if there are any more tweaks to be found to curtail Win 10 even more.

As for the Nextstart taskbar and the preview delay, I think that's governed by factors such as available resources, and how much else Nextstart is doing. Here, it happens to be virtually instantaneous almost every time - blink and you miss it!

Even if it did take a full second I really couldn't give a damn, wouldn't matter one iota to me. Shouldn't matter to anybody really - get a life everyone.

I took a look at the code and the animation delays for the live preview thumbnails are hard-coded. You won't find a setting to change them.

This said, I could change this fact, but there are TWO different type of animations, vertical and horizontal: vertical is the one where the live thumbnail pops up for the first time where the thumbnail grows from the ground up as the live thumbnail itself fades in (plus the reverse animation where it fades out), AND the animation shown when morphing thumbnails because of moving the pointer from one task to the other.

Are you talking about BOTH animations or just the vertical one?

I think it would be overkill to dedicate specific delays to these animations, I see it more like a on/off switch: either there is an animation or not. But in that case, instead of adding a setting specific to the live thumbnails, shouldn't this be controlled by the global 'disable all animations' setting? I mean, if you dislike delays, you will probably turn them off everywhere, no?

Yes, I'm talking about BOTH animations

The vertical is the priority but will be better to have all animations disabled

It's OK if the global "disable all animations" setting can turn off delays and fade effect in both animations, yes, please.

Just another question related to this:
Can you please put the thumbnail frame image in a folder like "C:\Program Files (x86)\Winstep\thumbnail_image" or just C:\Program Files (x86)\Winstep\images so I can customize ? I've tried to replace the image with Resoure Hacker and I can see it the images under "CUSTOM" but for some reason doesn't load the images from the .exe

And also, maybe this is not necessary if I can replace the thumbnail frame border image, but can you disable the transparency of the thumbnail frame? If it's a PNG the transparency it's directly in the png image file so it will be easy if I can modify these images like it can be done with themes.

Last question... sorry

Since it's not possible to customize the thumbnail font, color and size of the windows title in the thumbnail, can you add an option to modify this?

Will be great if can take the font size, color and font family from the context menu so it's configured in the theme...

Thanks

Sorry for asking more... the priority is the fade and delay and the transparency, if it's easy to use images from the installation directory for the thumbnail frame it will be amazing!

Ok, the 'disable all animations' setting now also disables the animation for the live previews (well, in the next release it will). Note, however, that this setting in WorkShelf is independent of the setting of the same name in NextSTART, you will have to disable animations in BOTH applications.



Download the Evolve theme and look for the Preview.png and PreviewM.png bitmaps. You can already customize this image on a theme by theme base.



Don't ever do this, at least not to the executable itself. Winstep applications always perform a self check and if they are modified in any way, they will notify you of such and exit.



Nope, sorry, not as simple as that since it has a ton of other implications for bitmap sizes etc

Thanks winstep !

I'm goona check Evolve theme

I'll wait impatiently for the new version , as I've seen in other topics, you posted sometimes a beta version link so users can test new features... so if you want to share a beta .exe version I'll test the new option to disable thumbnails, but don't worry if you're busy I can wait for the new version

Can you also make nextstart compatible with multimonitor, please? I mean detecting and showing the taskbar buttons of the windows opened in a monitor only and showind independent taskbar in each monitor. At least in the future if it's not easy to implement this now.

You've been distracted, v24.4 already supports this :

NextSTART Preferences -> Taskbar tab -> Taskbar Settings button.