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 Post subject: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 1:58 pm 
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After trying it out, I bought Winstep Extreme and it works okay.... most of the time. When i click on the Windows Icon I get a message that Workshelf can't find NextStart. In order to fix this, I have to manually start nextStart (Click on Program). Another odd thing is that if I right click on a drive, all Explorer windows disappear and so does my wall paer... for a second. I will then have to manually open more explorer windows if I want them. Anyone having these issues? :?
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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:45 pm 
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...and let slip the dogs of war?

The (latter) problem you're describing sounds more like an Explorer crash than anything related to Winstep. The right-click thing, specifically, sounds a lot like some other 3rd party program trying to add entries into the drive's context menu -- and failing -- which in turn brings Explorer down.
Since Winstep doesn't add any entries there, could you make sure that it's not some other program's fault?
You can start by checking which programs have added entries into the context menu of the drives -- done from "This PC" or "My Computer" or "Computer" (here's to Microsoft being unable to make their damn minds up) -- and making sure that by removing them (entries or programs) the crashing stops.

About the former, to which "Windows Icon" are you referring?

All in all, it all sounds like you may have more serious issues with your Windows installation...

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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:49 pm 
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Skagon already explained your second issue, as for the first:

CryHavoc wrote:
When i click on the Windows Icon I get a message that Workshelf can't find NextStart. In order to fix this, I have to manually start nextStart (Click on Program).


Since you are running Winstep Xtreme, the 'Windows Flag' icon in the dock tries to open the main NextSTART menu by sending a special command to NextSTART. For this to succeed, NextSTART obviously needs to be running at the time - otherwise you get that message.

Make sure 'Run at Startup' is enabled in the General tab of *NextSTART* Preferences. Remember that NextSTART and WorkShelf - despite both being part of a larger suite called Winstep Xtreme - are *independent* applications, each with their own Preference screens.

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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:54 pm 
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skagon wrote:
You can start by checking which programs have added entries into the context menu of the drives -- done from "This PC" or "My Computer" or "Computer" (here's to Microsoft being unable to make their damn minds up) -- and making sure that by removing them (entries or programs) the crashing stops.


I'm unaware of any inbuilt way of checking and editing context menu entries without 3pp, could you elaborate what you mean?
(other than just simply right-clicking and accounting for the visible entries in the menu)


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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 5:07 pm 
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I'll let Skagon answer your question, but wanted to add the following:

Buggy 3rd party context menu extensions can also crash the Winstep application, and they would crash Explorer too if Windows did not protect itself by initializing context menu extension DLLs in a separate thread. Winstep applications are single-threaded so they cannot do that.

It could also be that the DLL running inside a process other than Explorer ends up causing problems to Explorer itself.

One way to diagnose if a context menu extension is causing problems is by changing 'Show full right-click context menu options' from 'Always' to 'Never' in WorkShelf Preferences -> General tab -> More Options.

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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 10:01 pm 
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seeker wrote:
I'm unaware of any inbuilt way of checking and editing context menu entries without 3pp, could you elaborate what you mean?
(other than just simply right-clicking and accounting for the visible entries in the menu)


So am I. So yes, I meant simply right-clicking and visually accounting for the "bolted-on" entries. Things like antivirii (or antiviruses in the common tongue of westeros), file compression programmes, partition and disk managers, disk space calculators, directory comparators, etc.

At the very least, most programmes have options to enable or disable said context-menu additions, so, he (or you) could start by eliminating all of them, see if the problem persists, and then re-enable them one by one.

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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 10:10 pm 
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i cleaned up my context menu via 3pp but it required a couple of them (as there are different methods for a program to insert itself into the context menu and none of the programs covered all of them) but none of them were very user-friendly, so i wouldn't recommend anyone without at least some know-how to use them


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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 11:06 pm 
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Yeah, you have to be careful with that.

I remember one case where the Winstep application was crashing because of a context menu extension that had already been *uninstalled*, but had failed to remove all references to it from the Windows Registry.

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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:28 am 
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I solved those two problems by attrition (I reset my system back to an earlier point in time). Is there anything special you have to do to get Microsoft Edge to open inside Winstep?


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 Post subject: Re: Strange things with WinStep
PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:33 am 
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No. Just drag a shortcut to Edge from the Windows Start Menu - or the Windows Desktop - to a dock, menu or regular tab Shelf.

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