Well! This may explain my issue but we do not know where to look. We ARE running Bitdefender and when we boot the system all seems OK, but we get the popup from Winstep Xtreme that asks us to update. We click never and it used to go away until the next time we booted. However, it now pops up every few MINUTES and we can not get anything done as it covers up what we are doing! So, how can I check Bitdefender to see if that is our issue?

Thank you for your help!

What version of Winstep Xtreme are you running?

Did you change the date/time format in your PC (Windows Control Panel -> Region -> Formats)?

Not sure as we bought it on May 3rd, 2017. I am not on the system it is installed on now but it COULD be version 18...I will turn system on soon to see. Also, we never changed the date/time format. Could this be a Bitdefender issue? As I had said it would ask us to upgrade and we would say never and then it would go away, but now it comes back every few minutes and blocks the screen!

I've split and retitled the post since it has nothing to do with BitDefender.

I've had occasional reports of something like this happening, and as yourself noticed since it did not happen in the old system this leads me to believe in is an issue related to the format used by the SYSTEM itself (not the application) to store the date/time of the next prompt pop up.

I believe that if the format is invalid upon checking when next to display the renewal prompt, there is an internal error and the application displays the prompt by default (which can lead to the behavior you are observing in the new system).

Normally from other date format issues, this is because someone saw an article on the web or on a magazine to display the day of the week in the short date option and changed the date format defaults in the Windows Region settings. This can cause date conversions to fail on many applications, which will obviously lead to other issues.

Thing is, we can try following this path to try and fix your problem, but sincerely, have you already considered simply renewing your upgrade subscription instead?

This would allow you to upgrade to the latest v20.4 release, which not only prevents this particular issue from happening (by storing the date of the next prompt appearance in a way that is independent of the current date format) as it also fixes another issue with the position of the system tray pop ups in version 2004 of Windows 10. There is also a TON of other new features, both in v20.4 and in v19.2, which you are probably not running either.

Please let me know what you decide.

OK, I will check the Region settings. What am I supposed to have it set to? Long Date shows Day of the Week Friday, November 6, 2020 and short date just gives 11/6/2020.
I will explain why my wife wants to keep ver 18 if she can.

Can you post a screenshot of the Region settings dialog, please?

Well, I made the screenshot. Also, all my wife is using in her Winstep Xtreme is a Dock across the top and Workshelf on bottom and on dock. So, is something else she can go to that is less that has features she never will use anyway in Xtreme like Nexus Ultimate? If so, I do not think her settings from Xtreme can be imported to Ultimate anyway. Xtreme 20.10 is fine if she upgrades will anything she now has configured in V18 get changed or can she just keep on using the NEW Xtreme as she did before? We just did a backup of both the Workshelf and Nexstart. So, if she upgrades to 20.10 of Xtreme and restores those backups will her NEW Xtreme look and act the same? I ask as she does not want to have to do any more than she is doing and does not want it to change ANYTHING. That is why she has been afraid to update. It is not the $$$!

I think the problem might be the day of the week in the long date format.

Anyway, if your wife renews and then upgrades to v20.10 everything will remain as it was provided shes does NOT uninstall ANYTHING first.

You just install v20.10 ON TOP of the current v18.x installation (or click the 'Check for Updates' button on the About tab of Preferences and let the Winstep Update Manager do its thing).

She can make a backup of her current settings first if it makes her more comfortable: Preferences -> Advanced -> Backup button. She will need to do this for both NextSTART and WorkShelf since they are independent applications.

Let me see what she wants to do!