NextStart - looking for a merge option: Quick Launch (2) + TaskList (3) as in Win 7 (WinStep Xtreme, Win 7 Ultimate x64)?

I've tried various settings and searched this forum (sorry if I missed it) + www. I've attached a screen (Czech language).

I purchased WinStep Xtreme yesterday - I am a very advanced user (expert), I am attaching the result I use in Win (another screen) ... Thanks.

Although you can have this in WorkShelf docks set to display running applications ('Combine dock icons with running applications' setting) this type of functionality was never implemented in the NextSTART taskbar for a few reasons (not that it couldn't, it just wasn't).

For one the Quick Launch section in NextSTART is a very different beast from the Quick Launch section in the Windows taskbar - not only can it launch programs as it can also display menus, run Internal Commands, open docks in WorkShelf, etc.... Then it can be placed anywhere on the NextSTART taskbar (not just on the default position) and it can also be prevented from appear on same taskbar.

It also does not feature (nor was it designed to) the running indicators that docks do, and while the tasklist in the NextSTART taskbar can display the labels of the running applications, the icons in the Quick Launch section cannot.

Given that you can also independently set the icon size of the Quick Launch section items (and even how much space it takes in the taskbar, percentage wise) so it takes as little space as you wish, I do not think of this "limitation" as a biggie.

Okay, I get it. I'll try to use what I can. I'm used to certain ways, so I was looking to see if they were possible.

For the last 15 years or so on the PC I've tried to use folders/directories/groups/categories and of course sub and subsub, for better sorting. This is how I divide everything from programs to videos, games and other stuff.

Thanks for the reply.

You can actually do this through the Quick Launch section on the NextSTART taskbar as well - you can create a Quick Launch element in NextSTART that activates a dock you previously created in WorkShelf (and if that dock is disabled in the Docks & Shelves tab of WorkShelf it will only pop up when you click the icon in NextSTART, otherwise it will not be visible).

Also, you can then add Grid Stack elements to that dock (which can be of different types, just like the different tab types you can add to shelves) to further categorize your stuff.

This is all very powerful and flexible stuff.

I certainly never viewed it as a "limitation" but rather, as an important distinguishing mark. (Especially since using the Taskbar as the main interface here, so to speak.)

Indeed it is! So much so, the possibilities are almost endless. (Now, if only we could completely hide the shelf.... )

The shelves can be completely hidden - even their tabs, try looking at the settings picture - I just don't want to switch to English, so just subtract the items:





There are no such infinite possibilities, one can only choose from a set of possibilities. For example, I would like (or I'm partially used to): to group icons into groups, subgroups, sub-subgroups, To have for example a bulk icon even with a separate special icon: System * Net * Text * Graphics * Audio * Video * Data * Emulation * Games - when clicked, additional icons / names / icons + names would appear in the menu (icon size optional) = I already have it like this on the Windows Taskbar, along with a combination of running icons (I would possibly skip this when I get used to it), but what I don't have is just additional sub-levels and possibly sub-sub-levels, . .. I would take grouping by destination and icons in systray, I haven't found any program for that.

I even found the above thing in some software (besides the icons in systray), but it is buggy - the newer version that became free is incompatible with Windows 7 - so it often crashes, then the icons get lost (after restarting that program) and have to be manipulated again to appear. The program runs as a shell.



I don't list the program names here on purpose, because about a year ago I listed one here and asked if something like this would work in WinStep Xtreme - and was banned for it ...



I noticed that since installing WinStep Xtreme yesterday, something is stealing my focus on the Windows taskbar, even when I turn WinStep Xtreme off using the icons in systray. Is it possible that the WinStep service is running and stealing my focus? It used to be that on the Windows Taskbar I could just stand with the cursor on an icon and a submenu would pop up, now I often have to tap into the Windows Taskbar first to make it happen.

Not possible at all... The Winstep Xtreme service does not run at the GUI level: as of Windows Vista, services are strictly forbidden from interacting directly with the user.

You can try downloading the small foreground tester app from the Winstep website HERE. Unzip and run the executable directly, it will tell you which application/window currently has the focus.

So I didn't see any part of WinStep in this utility at all. I usually have Winstep turned off and only turn it on occasionally, I'm still testing its functions and have yet to figure out how I'm going to use it. But the problem with loss of focus continued, interestingly, the only one that opened in my icon pile (when it was sort of out of focus) was the one where I last added WinStep icons.

So I decided to quit and restart the program that does my icon groups on the Windows Taskbar, and I no longer lose focus, problem solved! So somehow the icon group program was stuck ... ugh. My computer has been running for 24 hours now, and I just installed WinStep Xtreme to begin with, so I thought that might be it.

Recently my hardware translator (looks like a mobile, but it's not a mobile):

>>> https://vasco-electronics.com/translato ... nslator-v4

- I've been using it very intensively for a few days and suddenly noticed it was eating an awful lot of battery, even when it was switched off. I dealt with it for a few days and suddenly it bit and wouldn't even translate, so I restarted it and the battery guzzling problem disappeared. As a programmer, I know how tricky software development is.

So the fault was not with WinStep Xtreme, but with the Windows Taskbar icon grouping program.

Actually, that is the wrong tab - to collapse the shelf inc. the tabs you need the Behaviour tab. (I can't describe the exact place there as I'm not currently in Windows.) So yes, I'm aware of this, but that still shows a few pixels at the screen edge. I meant *completely* hiding the shelf. Anyway, small matter, just something that would give a more unified appearance to the way I'm set up - I have everything on the Nextstart Taskbar but need the shelf to hold some things to which the Taskbar links. Just my very unusual setup.

I didn't say anything about *infinite* possibilities - as you can see in the quote above, I said *the possibilities are almost endless*. That's a huge difference. And they are. My peculiar setup is living proof of that, as it were.