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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Thu May 29, 2025 8:27 pm 
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nexter wrote:
This is an English language board! Read the Board Rules & Guidelines before posting. If you are unable to post in English, provide a machine translation alongside your native language post.


Ahaha, you're wasting your breath with a bot (one entry for this email address on stopforumspam). Anyway, I added the English translation.

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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Thu May 29, 2025 11:18 pm 
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winstep wrote:
Ahaha, you're wasting your breath with a bot (one entry for this email address on stopforumspam). Anyway, I added the English translation.

LOL! Well, as I don't get to see the email addies I wasn't to know. Although, the post somehow looked a bit too perfect, too straightforward so I was a bit suspicious. (I was able to translate it for myself without machine aid. :) )

Oddly enough, your translation is just about word for word the same as mine so I didn't do too badly I guess. :D

It really does annoy me though when I see posts in other languages and nobody's arsed to at least add a machine translation. (Even if I can translate it for myself.) It's just plain rude, extremely bad manners. Pardon my French/Brazilian/Portuguese - Tudo é (uma) merda! ;) (It's one little phrase one should know in as many languages as possible - can be very useful. :P )

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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2025 10:46 pm 
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Just seen this. So quick! Thanks, that's great.


winstep wrote:
justposted wrote:
Could it be made possible to press Escape to close (same as pressing Cancel) any Nexus dialogue box? I often open a setting to check something, or even by accident, and finding/clicking cancel is a minor irritation. I'd like to just hit Escape and have it go away.


Done.

In the next release all dialog boxes with a Cancel button as well as information dialogs that have a single OK button will now close when you press the ESC key.


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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2025 10:52 pm 
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Another suggestion:

As Task Manager reports GPU info nowadays, I wonder whether it would be possible to create modules that report temperature and VRAM usage. Similar to the CPU/RAM meters. Maybe even an FPS meter.

I have become attached to having a small always-active clock and performance monitoring dock on top of my game windows. It would be great to have a full set of meters with it.

A related suggestion would be to allow a dock to be always active, so that I don't have to set it per .exe


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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2025 6:22 am 
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justposted wrote:
Another suggestion:

As Task Manager reports GPU info nowadays, I wonder whether it would be possible to create modules that report temperature and VRAM usage. Similar to the CPU/RAM meters. Maybe even an FPS meter.

I have become attached to having a small always-active clock and performance monitoring dock on top of my game windows. It would be great to have a full set of meters with it.

A related suggestion would be to allow a dock to be always active, so that I don't have to set it per .exe

Yes, a GPU module would be useful no doubt, but I think any new modules have to wait till multiple modules are enabled which will be a major overhaul. That way, drive modules and all sorts of other modules become feasible. Don't know whether temperature module would be possible. But as for VRAM - already got that at present in the RAM mod. It displays total VRAM used and on mouseover a breakdown of total VRAM, available VRAM, as well a total physical RAM and available physical RAM.

With "always active" I take it you mean always on top of z order. For a dock, go to Dock properties -> Position -> bottom left set setting to "Always above other windows" and Bob's your uncle. :D

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nexter - so, what's next?


HATCHES, MATCHES, & DISPATCHES

To be interred today, D.E.M. O'Cracy, beloved son of the late Liberty & P.R.Ivacy, beloved brother of T. Ruth, H. Onour, & J.U. Sticia, murdered brutally.

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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2025 6:50 am 
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nexter wrote:
Yes, a GPU module would be useful no doubt, but I think any new modules have to wait till multiple modules are enabled which will be a major overhaul.


Yep. Multiple session modules, so you can have multiple clock modules for independent time zones, weather modules displaying the weather in different locations, etc...

This would also open the way for drive x: modules as Nexter mentioned, etc...

I have been slowly preparing the ground work for this, so it might be something I tackle after the next release. It will still be a lot of work to pull it off since the modules weren't initially designed with multiple sessions in mind, of course.

nexter wrote:
But as for VRAM - already got that at present in the RAM mod.


Eh? Video RAM? The Winstep RAM module does not display that info.

nexter wrote:
With "always active" I take it you mean always on top of z order.


Actually that is not what he means - to save CPU resources a dock stops updating its contents if it is on the same monitor as a full screen application (which means any modules in it stop refreshing even if the dock is always on top and visible).

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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2025 11:19 pm 
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winstep wrote:
nexter wrote:
But as for VRAM - already got that at present in the RAM mod.


Eh? Video RAM? The Winstep RAM module does not display that info.

nexter wrote:
With "always active" I take it you mean always on top of z order.


Actually that is not what he means - to save CPU resources a dock stops updating its contents if it is on the same monitor as a full screen application (which means any modules in it stop refreshing even if the dock is always on top and visible).

Oops, silly, been distracted what with impending procedure etc. and thought 'Virtual Memory' instead! And do. re: 'always active' - mind miles away. Sorry. :(

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nexter - so, what's next?


HATCHES, MATCHES, & DISPATCHES

To be interred today, D.E.M. O'Cracy, beloved son of the late Liberty & P.R.Ivacy, beloved brother of T. Ruth, H. Onour, & J.U. Sticia, murdered brutally.

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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Sun Jun 29, 2025 4:58 pm 
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Hi, after an update I thought about additional improvement, which is auto-backup.


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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Sun Jun 29, 2025 5:23 pm 
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lubierzca wrote:
Hi, after an update I thought about additional improvement, which is auto-backup.


That feature already exists and is implemented via an Internal Command (IC) in combination with the Alarms feature.

Create a new Alarm using the Alarm Manager (Preferences -> General tab -> Manage Alarms), set when you want it to run and in the 'Do What?' section select 'Run an Internal Command' then choose "Auto Backup Settings".

If you are running Winstep Xtreme, this IC will backup BOTH WorkShelf and NextSTART settings when it runs (provided NextSTART is running at the time the IC executes, of course). The backup files will be time stamped.

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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2025 2:16 pm 
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winstep wrote:
lubierzca wrote:
Hi, after an update I thought about additional improvement, which is auto-backup.


That feature already exists and is implemented via an Internal Command (IC) in combination with the Alarms feature.

Create a new Alarm using the Alarm Manager (Preferences -> General tab -> Manage Alarms), set when you want it to run and in the 'Do What?' section select 'Run an Internal Command' then choose "Auto Backup Settings".


Thanks, wasn't aware of Alerts feature at all, there's a ton of useful stuff as I can see.

Additionally I was wondering about other suggestion I've made months ago, which is sorting of context menu items in folder view, is it planned to be in Ultimate or at least free version to have?

Also customizing context menu theme. I know it's part of Xtreme version, but paying 40 bucks just for that specifically for me is a bit too much, as I only use Dock, especially as Dock is part of every Nexus version. Is it possible to customize them (and I mean both theme and options listed in those menus) in Ultimate version or if not - to at least consider it to add there or free version, just for dock only?


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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2025 4:16 pm 
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lubierzca wrote:
Additionally I was wondering about other suggestion I've made months ago, which is sorting of context menu items in folder view, is it planned to be in Ultimate or at least free version to have?


To tell you the truth even I was thinking about that the other day. I'll try to add it for next release.

lubierzca wrote:
Also customizing context menu theme. I know it's part of Xtreme version, but paying 40 bucks just for that specifically for me is a bit too much, as I only use Dock, especially as Dock is part of every Nexus version. Is it possible to customize them (and I mean both theme and options listed in those menus) in Ultimate version or if not - to at least consider it to add there or free version, just for dock only?


I was going to comment that upgrading from Nexus Ultimate to Winstep Xtreme only costs the price difference between the two products until I realized that you are running the free version of Nexus (yes you had already previously stated so but I didn't remember it anymore, sorry).

Allow me to go on a little rant:

The free version of the Nexus dock is already much, much, more powerful than it should be for its own sake. Remember: there is no such thing as a "free lunch", because *somebody* ALWAYS has to pay for it.

Because I don't do any marketing (I'm a developer and besides sucking at marketing I have no time for it, it's a full time job by itself) the ONLY reasoning behind having a free version is for it to do the marketing for me (a kind of "calling card"). Keep in mind that although I love what I do, I have to eat too.

So, the idea is that a percentage of those using the free version will want or need more than what the free version can provide and they will be willing to pay for that. They get what they want and I get my next meal, so it's a win-win proposal for everyone.

The free version is more powerful than it should be because even though Winstep exists as a business since 1999, the first official version of Nexus was only released in late 2009. Nexus was a relatively late comer to what at the time was a market saturated with both commercial and free docks (Stardock's ObjectDock, RocketDock, RK Launcher, Yz Dock, XWD and a multitude of others).

So, in order to compete Nexus had to - at the very least - be a lot better than the already existing free docks. It took time and a lot of effort but eventually Nexus prevailed.

Notice how all the other free docks are long dead despite of how popular some of them were at the time (especially RocketDock). This happened - as it always happens - because they did not have a commercial side to it - again, we all need to eat! Even the commercial dock in the group (Objectdock) is now a pale version of what it once was in terms of market share despite being much cheaper than Nexus Ultimate and being backed up by a big corporation like Stardock.

Unfortunately there was a MAJOR drawback to making the free version of Nexus have so many features (again, it's the difference in features that motivates people to pay for the more powerful versions): for more people than it should, the free version is "good enough".

Case in point, you.

As I was adding more and more features to the commercial versions, I was letting some of them trickle down to the free version until I realized that, for my own good, I had to stop doing that. There was no longer any need for it (Nexus had already become the dominant dock) and I was only shooting myself in the foot.

The paid versions have a lot more useful features than you realize, you just don't know about them yet because you haven't done your homework yet. For instance, the Alarms feature, which in the free version of Nexus is limited to a single alarm (kind of a demo of the real thing, really). It is actually a very powerful feature that can be used to automate a variety of actions, including reminders to events (I use it here for that all the time).

Plus, there will be other things you will want, and all together are what will, in your mind, eventually justify upgrading to the paid versions: the ability to customize the look of the menus being one of them (and then you find out you can also create your own menus) plus the future ability to sort folder type menus by name, date and size, plus a ton of other stuff you simply cannot do or do not have in the free version of Nexus. Sometimes you only miss something once you've tried it for the first time.

Considering you would be enjoying the benefits of over two decades of continuous development plus everything a product like Winstep Xtreme can do, I don't think 40 bucks is anything especial to pay for it. You will spend that much or more in a night out, or in a game that you will finish in a handful of hours, and you will never remember about those again - while the Winstep application will always be right in front of you as a productivity tool (and as a fun way to launch your favorite applications and spend some time tweaking).

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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2025 4:45 pm 
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That's fair, I understand. Thanks for giving such an elaborate view point on all that and I agree with free version having a ton of cool features already - I was surprised how alternatives feel bare bones and amateurish in comparison. I may then actually consider purchasing Xtreme version after taking it on a test drive first (as I can see I can test it for a month, so thank you for that), maybe I'll find some more cool features I may use in the future.


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 Post subject: Re: Winstep Wish List
PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2025 5:00 pm 
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Hey! Guess I am not TOTALLY useless at marketing then. :D

If you are going to try Winstep Xtreme, backup your Nexus settings first then restore those settings to Winstep Xtreme once installed.

Also, Winstep Xtreme is a lot more powerful than the free version of Nexus, so also a lot more complicated (and in Xtreme Nexus is "replaced" by WorkShelf). It is also pretty much modular, so if you don't want the NextSTART component of Winstep Xtreme replacing your Windows taskbar, you can also turn that off in NextSTART Preferences.

Basically you can pick & choose what you want to see/use and not.

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