Just uploaded a public beta of Winstep Xtreme and Nexus Ultimate v22.4.

If you have your Winstep application set to notify you of beta versions (Preferences -> Advanced tab -> Automatic Updates section), you should get a notification within the next 24 hours.

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IMPORTANT:

Despite having passed more than one year, this beta, as well as the final release, is free for all those who purchased a Winstep application when or since version 20.10 was released.

For the Winstep Update Manager NOT to flag the new version as being outside the free upgrade period, the release date of this beta has been set as 27 of October 2020. Please pay not attention to this date UNLESS it appears in red to you (in which case you really must renew your upgrade subscription to run it).

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The new update, among other things, brings FULL compatibility with Windows 11.

Although the usage of Windows 11 is not widespread yet due to the hardware limitations imposed by Microsoft, full compatibility is particularly important because the type of users who run Winstep applications are also the type of users most likely to make a quick jump to Windows 11.

Important enough for me to go out and buy a new PC with Windows 11 installed from root so I could turn it into my main development system and run it with Winstep on a daily base (you should always try your own dog food ) !

Microsoft made changes to the Windows taskbar in Windows 11 that broke a couple of things in Winstep applications. There were a handful of outstanding issues:

1. For some reason Microsoft decided to move the Windows system icons (Power, Sound, Network, etc) out of the notification area (systray) and into a separate section of the new Windows taskbar.

That caused those icons to disappear from the list of systray icons in the Winstep applications. Not good at all considering that the NextSTART component of Winstep Xtreme optionally replaces the Windows taskbar (you would thus loose access to those icons unless you also made the Windows taskbar visible).

This has now been solved and the Windows system icons are now visible again - and fully functional! - on the systray section of Winstep applications!


2. The default shelf (tabbed dock) in Winstep Xtreme and Nexus Ultimate has a tab dedicated to displaying all the UWP Apps installed on that particular system. Likewise for the Apps sub-menu under the Programs sub-menu in the NextSTART component of Winstep Xtreme.

Unfortunately Microsoft made a change under-the-hood that also broke this, and therefore both the Apps tab and the Apps menu were appearing empty under Windows 11. This too has now been fixed.

3. A new internal command (IC) 'Windows Widgets' has also been added under Windows 11 that opens the Windows Widgets panel (is anyone using that?).

4. Clicking the clock in the NextSTART taskbar under 11 will again open the Windows calendar. Likewise when you click on the clock module in a dock if you have it configured to show the Windows calendar.

One limitation is that it will no longer open next to the mouse pointer but at the default bottom right position.

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And the above is it for issues specific to Windows 11.

For Windows 10, a bug was fixed where the systray popup panel for Sound devices could appear off-screen when using multiple audio devices (thus preventing you from selecting another device).

The MSN weather feed of the Weather module was apparently mis-calculating the timezones, which resulted in things like a moon icon being used in plain daylight and widely off observation times, etc... I will need some feedback on this to make sure this fix didn't break anything in other time zones, please.

Another MAJOR change was to the code that deals with transitions from full screen applications (like games), screen resolution changes, and adding/removing monitors. I noticed that it would crash sometimes, and I hope the new code fixed that (as well as other issues like immediately going back to the desktop when running *some* full screen games that changed screen resolution).

There were, of course, other minor additions and bug fixes. Full list is in the History log (Preferences -> About tab -> click version number -> View Change Log).

Please let me know ASAP if you see any issues with this too (or anything else in this beta, really)!

this could be a big selling point for w11 users. even though i wasnt paying much attention i saw several articles complaining about this change

When I say "fully functional" I mean it does the same thing it does when you click those icons in Windows 11 (they all pop up the same hybrid panel).

Actually I could have left the original function operational (clicking the volume icon would still pop up the sound volume slider) but I noticed some issues when clicking on the Net icon, for instance (a list of available Wifi networks would pop up but then immediately disappeared).

Given the funky behavior and the likelihood of it getting worse since the Windows code responsible for the old pop ups is now "dead code" from Microsoft's perspective, I decided it was better to emulate what happens under Windows 11 and pop up the hybrid panel as well.

I created a forum account to express appreciation for this update.

Recently, I have experienced poor business practices on the part of software developers (I won't name names). On the other hand, this is an example of a business being managed correctly.

So...keep up the good work! I'll continue to support this company in the future.

"The MSN weather feed of the Weather module was apparently mis-calculating the timezones, which resulted in things like a moon icon being used in plain daylight and widely off observation times, etc... I will need some feedback on this to make sure this fix didn't break anything in other time zones, please."

Thanks for the new beta, in particular the weather icon fix. Seeing the moon icon in the middle of the day was annoying I'll post back if I see any unexpected behavior.

Thanks, guys!

I expect this beta to be a short one, the only thing that worries me the most in terms of potential problems is the new code that deals with screen resolution changes, adding/removing monitors, etc...

unfortunately im back to one monitor setup after changing jobs (it was a comany monitor)

I must confess to finding it rather curious that Winstep users should be rather likely to be early adopters of Win 11 - a beta if ever there was one. I rather would have thought that using Winstep apps would show a certain degree of individuality and independent thinking, and would thus indicate a certain degree of reluctance, resistance even, to follow the sheep to jumping into the Win 11 trap before it could be considered a properly bug-fixed, stable release. Ah well....

Re: the widgets panel, that annoyed the f**k out of me the moment it showed its ugly face in a Win 10 update. Fortunately, one can get rid of it and I shall do so as soon as I've got Win 10 reinstalled.

As for the weather module, just yesterday morning I came across a note - rather hidden out of the way and thus overlooked - from quite some time ago, to the effect that it always displays the current day with a cloudy (full) moon icon, regardless of time or weather conditions. Don't know if the fix will address that? We'll see once I'm actually able to run Win 10 again I guess.

Hi all,

has been fixed in system tray the Google Drive icon right click not showing its menu?

Thanks

M

Check Jorge's opening post of this thread for the most important fixes, then check the changelog as explained there. If it's not listed, it hasn't been done. Given that Jorge would hardly risk running anything Google on a production system, I doubt it could have been addressed.

Not even sure it even *should* be addressed - people should be discouraged from using anything Google, IMO.

i had a similar issue, with a similary 'benign' app (whatsapp), though not with the official app itself, which doesnt have a systray icon, but airh a third party app whatsaptray, but i dont consider that to be even a low priority bug, since i dont believe many users use whatsapp desktop, and less even the whatsaptray itself.
but combined with the gdrive icon it could point to something usefull to figure out whats going on

Looks like there was an issue with the latest version (6.x) of InnoSetup (the setup application for Winstep apps) where it could pop up a 'Requires Windows service pack 1 or later' message and abort installation.

Although I cannot confirm this, from what I read it seems this only happened when trying to install on a Windows 7 system OR (and this is the really bad part) on a system running a LATER version of Windows but which was upgraded all the way from Windows 7 instead of a clean install (e.g.; you go to Windows 10 by upgrading from Windows 7, then to Windows 11 by upgrading from Windows 10).

Due to this - and also because version 6.x of Innosetup is no longer compatible with Windows XP - I have downgraded the installer back to version 5.x for future releases. Nothing lost, really.

Err.... Yeah, Whatsapp - I really should have extended that and said that people should be most strongly discouraged from using anything Google, Fakebook, Apple, Amazon, Ebay, MS (if they can), et al. Not pretty.

"I must confess to finding it rather curious that Winstep users should be rather likely to be early adopters of Win 11 - a beta if ever there was one."

Hi! Does it mean I should consider getting my computer ready for Windows 11 and then switch operating systems as soon as possible?

đ

best way to keep your computer secure is to never use internet, dont even connect to networks, better yet disable your wifi and ethernet cards, and all usb ports (floppy/cd/dvd drives too if you have them)



kidding aside, i know there are safer/more secure platforms around for everything, problem is, youd need to get all of your contacts to migrate to them too