Have been working hard on the next release after finishing v22.7.

I'll put all I've added so far at the end of this post, but I think the most important new feature is the ability to have per-monitor task lists. What in Windows 11 is described as

"When using multiple displays, show my taskbar apps on: All taskbars/Main taskbar and taskbar where windows is open/Taskbar where window is open."

This ability is already fully functional in WorkShelf/Nexus Ultimate, and you can now have docks, for instance, displaying *only* the running apps that have windows open in the monitor they're in.



I'm currently implementing this in NextSTART as well, and in NextSTART this obviously implies support for multiple taskbars, one per monitor (e.g. 'Show my taskbar on all displays'). However, I'm thinking that this feature must come with some limitations as I do not want to have to keep track of multiple taskbars.

As you might know, it is possible to detach the tasklist and the systray from the NextSTART taskbar and have them floating anywhere on the desktop. It is also possible to have a floating taskbar which can be moved anywhere on the screen.

With multiple taskbars I would have to keep track of the position and status of EACH of these objects, and to keep things simple I really want to avoid that. So, what I am thinking is that if the user enables 'Show my taskbar on all displays' he becomes limited to choosing a screen edge into which ALL taskbars will dock to on each monitor (e.g. bottom, top, left or right). Therefore, he will not be able to undock the taskbar OR detach the tasklist/systray.

This way each taskbar will be a 'clone' of the other taskbars except in its ability to display running tasks that are open in that particular monitor only. Each taskbar will have a Start Button, the Quick Launch section (any changes you make here will be immediately and automatically reflected on all the other taskbars), a tasklist and even their own copy of the systray.

Any captured WorkShelf modules will only appear in the taskbar of the primary monitor, of course.

So, what do you think?

Anyway, regarding the changes so far:


WorkShelf:

New Features:


* Added new 'Reset Reserved Screen Areas" Internal Command. This will reset any areas reserved for the NextSTART taskbar and WorkShelf shelves, docks, etc - useful when Windows gets confused about areas of the screen that should not be covered by maximized windows.

* The 'Renew Now' button will now also appear on the About tab of Preferences if the user's upgrade subscription has expired and he is running a version that no longer works with his current license key.

* Added all the Windows 10/11 Start button right click menu options to the contexct menu of a 'Start Menu' internal command.

* Added new 'Use Legacy Mode' setting, disabled by default, to the CPU Module settings dialog.

* If running on Windows 8 or above and 'Use Legacy Mode' is NOT enabled, the total CPU usage percentage displayed on the CPU Meter is now the same as that displayed on the Task Manager of Windows 8 onwards.

* System Interrupts is now also included in the list of processes and their CPU usage.

* Added "Check Service Communication" option to the Troubleshooting Options dialog. Verifies that the Winstep service required to perform actions that require admin privileges (such as installing a theme font) is operating properly.

* All Windows Settings internal commands now have individual icons instead of all sharing the same icon.

* Added new 'Settings' tab type, displaying all the Windows 10 and 11 Settings categories.

* Under Windows 10 and 11 the default shelf now has a Settings tab instead of a Quick Launch tab.

* Changed the wording of the uninstall survey.

* Added support for per-monitor tasklists: docks, shelves, drawers and even grid-stacks showing a list of running applications can now show windows open on all monitors or only windows open on the current monitor.

* Added global setting 'When using multiple monitors, show running applications on..." to the Tasks tab in Preferences with the following three options: "All tasklists", "Main tasklist and tasklist where window is open" and "Tasklist where window is open".


Fixes:


* The currently selected item was not updating itself correctly when creating a new shelf or drawer in the 'Dock and Shelf Management' tab of Preferences.

* The icon cache was not being destroyed as it should when modifying a shelf or drawer via the Shelf Properties dialog.

* Several misc.issues when editing and modifying shelf tabs via the Shelf Properties dialog.

* Wanda would stop swiming on the desktop after returning from sleep or hibernation.

* The 'Send to WorkShelf' dialog would crash the application when selecting a Grid Stack, a Drawer or a Shelf with no Regular tabs.

* Only Grid Stacks and Drawers with Regular tabs are now shown in the 'Send to WorkShelf' dialog.

* The CPU utilization percentage of the current CPU hog process in balloon tooltips was not respecting the 'Show decimal place for processes' setting.


NextSTART:

New Features:


* Added new 'Reset Reserved Screen Areas" Internal Command. This will reset any areas reserved for the NextSTART taskbar and WorkShelf shelves, docks, etc - useful when Windows gets confused about areas of the screen that should not be covered by maximized windows.

* Added new 'Automatically collapse Quick Launch area after..." setting so an expanded Quick Launch area can be automatically collpased after a pre-determined amount of time (from 'Never' to 60 seconds) when restricting the space used by the Quick Launch area on the taskbar with an Expand button.

* The 'Number of documents to be shown in a Recent Documents menu' setting in the Advanced Menu dialog now uses a Spinner control to change the value.

* Added new 'Never Show Icons in Menus' setting to the misc.section of the Advanced Menu dialog. When set it prevents NextSTART menus from showing icons even if the theme allows it.

* The 'Renew Now' button will now also appear on the About tab of Preferences if the user's upgrade subscription has expired and he is running a version that no longer works with his current license key.

* Menu document thumbnails can now be as wide as 256 pixels and their width can be set on a pixel by pixel base (Preferences : Menu tab : Menu Advanced).

* Added "Check Service Communication" option to the Troubleshooting Options dialog. Verifies that the Winstep service required to perform actions that require admin privileges (such as installing a theme font) is operating properly.

* All Windows Settings internal commands now have individual icons instead of all sharing the same icon.

* Moved the 'Blank Menu' option in the 'Insert New Menu Item' and 'Add New Quick Launch Item' right click context menus to the 'Menu' sub-menu.


Fixes:


* The right click Start Menu button menu now closes after selecting an option, unless the user presses the SHIFT or CTRL keys while clicking.

* When the NextSTART taskbar was set to autohide, if the user opened the windows 11 widgets Panel the taskbar would hide it along with itself.


Nexus Ultimate:

New Features:


* Added new 'Reset Reserved Screen Areas" Internal Command. This will reset any areas reserved for shelves, docks, etc - useful when Windows gets confused about areas of the screen that should not be covered by maximized windows.

* The 'Renew Now' button will now also appear on the About tab of Preferences if the user's upgrade subscription has expired and he is running a version that no longer works with his current license key.

* Added all the Windows 10/11 Start button right click menu options to the contexct menu of a 'Start Menu' internal command.

* Added new 'Use Legacy Mode' setting, disabled by default, to the CPU Module settings dialog.

* If running on Windows 8 or above and 'Use Legacy Mode' is NOT enabled, the total CPU usage percentage displayed on the CPU Meter is now the same as that displayed on the Task Manager of Windows 8 onwards.

* System Interrupts is now also included in the list of processes and their CPU usage.

* Added "Check Service Communication" option to the Troubleshooting Options dialog. Verifies that the Winstep service required to perform actions that require admin privileges (such as installing a theme font) is operating properly.

* All Windows Settings internal commands now have individual icons instead of all sharing the same icon.

* Added new 'Settings' tab type, displaying all the Windows 10 and 11 Settings categories.

* Under Windows 10 and 11 the default shelf now has a Settings tab instead of a Quick Launch tab.

* Changed the wording of the uninstall survey.

* Added support for per-monitor tasklists: docks, shelves, drawers and even grid-stacks showing a list of running applications can now show windows open on all monitors or only windows open on the current monitor.

* Added global setting 'When using multiple monitors, show running applications on..." to the Tasks tab in Preferences with the following three options: "All tasklists", "Main tasklist and tasklist where window is open" and "Tasklist where window is open".



Fixes:


* The expanded calendar that popped up when you clicked on the iconic calendar module in a dock or shelf would appear blank when using a theme with bitmaps for the desktop version of the calendar module in Winstep Xtreme.

* The currently selected item was not updating itself correctly when creating a new shelf or drawer in the 'Dock and Shelf Management' tab of Preferences.

* The icon cache was not being destroyed as it should when modifying a shelf or drawer via the Shelf Properties dialog.

* Several misc.issues when editing and modifying shelf tabs via the Shelf Properties dialog.

* The 'Send to WorkShelf' dialog would crash the application when selecting a Grid Stack, a Drawer or a Shelf with no Regular tabs.

* Only Grid Stacks and Drawers with Regular tabs are now shown in the 'Send to WorkShelf' dialog.

* The CPU utilization percentage of the current CPU hog process in balloon tooltips was not respecting the 'Show decimal place for processes' setting.

Phew, somebody has been a very busy boy!

The multiple Taskbar implementation you propose there sounds just fine to me Jorge. And all the rest of it - good stuff, too.

Ok, we already have fully functional per-monitor NextSTART taskbars here (obviously with the limitations I talked about, they have to be docked, not floating, full screen width, etc).

Other than that the world is your oyster, and unlike the Windows secondary taskbars each NextSTART secondary taskbar has its own copy of the systray etc...

So far so good, but there are still a TON of details to take care of - the code was built from the ground up to support a single taskbar and this change is MASSIVE.

... and since I'm on a roll regarding massive changes, it's quite possible that - not on this upcoming release but on the one after that - I might even tackle the holy grail of multi-session modules.

This would allow things such as world clocks (multiple clock modules, each displaying the time in a particular location), monitoring the weather in different locations, monitoring different network adapters/batteries, etc, and even adding new modules that only make sense when you have the ability to have multiple modules of the same kind, such as a Disk monitoring module, for instance.

OK, so the world's your lobster as regards multiple Nextstart Taskbars - good stuff. However, those multi-session mods really seem like a mammoth task. Wouldn't it be better/more appropriate to address at least some of the long-standing issues/buglets etc. regarding the Taskbar, shelf and nexus first though, Jorge? Some are really going back an awful long way, and although the majority of users probably don't encounter or mind them, they are there nonetheless and represent imperfections in what are otherwise near perfect apps and are certainly quite irritating at the least here.

Well, make a list of those then (and anyone else reading this please feel free to chime in too). My memory isn't what it used to be anymore lol

LOL! Is anybody's? Mine sure as hell isn't, either. That's why I always keep notes, and I've got a couple of lists of these issues etc. that I'll dig out in the next day or two then.

OK, I've been digging and digging but couldn't find everything - it's possible of course that the rest has already been fixed. Anyway, here's what I have found for now.

Nextstart Menus & Titlebar

Gadget icons on Titlebars of Horizontal Menus are not consistently displayed. Sometimes they can be made visible by clicking on the positions and sliding off them but they are 'lost' again at the next refresh.

We seem to have had mouse-overs on menu titlebar buttons in the past as I came across their bitmaps/icons in some (now very, pre-Nexus) old themes by various people (inc. myself), e.g., CloseAM.*, CloseIM.*, RollUpAM.*, etc. This certainly doesn't seem to work now, or perhaps this function was just planned and didn't get implemented? In any event, it would be logical (and nice!) to have this now so that it would be in line/consistent with all other gadget buttons etc. throughout Xtreme.

As for the taskbar, we seem to have a TaskbarV.* image, but no TasksV.*, TasksMV.* TasksAV.* buttons. When using rather distinctive bitmaps, e.g. ones that follow a vertical/linear pattern of the taskbar background itself, for Tasks.*, TasksM.*, and TasksA.* this can result in very awkward/ugly appearances of these in vertical Taskbars. Granted, as far as I can tell nobody else so far seems to have fallen foul of this, but nonetheless, it certainly is an imperfection at the very least and certainly a problem with many of my own themes, making vertical Taskbars impossible to use.

Still with the taskbar, a vertical bitmap for the system tray background should be an option for the same reason.

On floating taskbars esp. vertical ones, the Hide/Show button sometimes 'fades' away and remains invisible.


Workshelf

Workshelf doesn't see/use the inverted bitmaps (*F.*) for the top edge shelf. It seems to simply invert the normal bitmaps instead. This is very noticeable where e.g. a graduated background is used for the shelf, and in the gadget icons where these are vertically distinctively oriented. However, as I have not encountered anybody else's themes using inverted bitmaps so far (at least, not in the themes bundled into Xtreme) this may again well be a problem that nobody else comes up against.

Mouse-over on mainly the Hide and esp. the Prefs icons does not always work, especially in vertical shelves. Sometimes the mouse-over bitmap only shows briefly as the icon is actually being clicked.

The mouse-over scrolling action is way too fast - would be nice if this was user definable?


Nexus

Similar problem to Workshelf re: inverted bitmaps. Top edge docks seem to either use the bottom edge bimap or invert the top edge one, not sure which. This applies to both advanced tiled and background docks. It can also be observed in the 'Atmoshpherica' theme, which seems to be the only one apart from my own that uses distinctive bitmaps for all four orientations.



That's about it for now, Jorge. But I'll keep digging in my storage disks to see if I find anything else.

Right, found one more - concerning the UPS desktop module. If/when Winstep Xtreme is first loaded, anything like a simple progress bar in this module will not be rendered properly and the theme has to be loaded again in order to achieve this. Shurely shome mishtake?

I can't recall if this applies to any of the default themes, but it certainly applies in most of my own that use a simple bar graph. Can send you a sample UPS theme if it helps.

Yes, please.

And apologies if I have been quiet, but I've been a busy bee working on the new multi-taskbar feature of NextSTART. Given the scope of the change, lots of little details to take care of - but it is now running on my desktop, nearly ready for a public beta release.

Yeah, I know you've been a very busy bee Jorge.

Will sort a sample later today if I can. Shall I email it or PM?

Email to Winstep support is probably better, thanks.

on that topic, how do you get battery module to recognize your ups? (maybe i asked that somewhere already?). it doesn't register mine, although its connected to the computer. windows doesn't recognize it as a battery tho, it has its own app so that might be the reason?

latest nexus, win 10 64 bit, ups is APC BE850G2-GR, with PowerChute personal edition 3.1.0

Will do.

I do recall that you did ask this not so long ago. ISTR that the answer was that yours used a non-standard protocol, or something like that? Oh, hang on, that post was re: your mouse's battery levels, sorry.
https://forums.winstep.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=98&p=42724&hilit=UPS#p42724

yea that was it. quite possible my ups is a bit special too