Hi all;
I just renewed my Xtreme license... I had previously registered and used it, back in 2015 (!!), but had stopped using it after a year or two because I switched to WindowBlinds. After all this time, I had forgotten what it is like to wade through an almost infinite number of options, to find some basic things...

I hope you don't mind me asking a couple of newbie questions, just to get the basic layout usable while I do further research...

1. The Winstep versions of taskbar-running-apps and notification are floating around on the screen... however, I'm using the WindowBlinds Taskbar and Notification area, so don't need the Winstep versions... turning those off *ought* to be very prominent, but I'm not finding them; where do I look for these options??

2. The main component that I wanted from Winstep, was NextStart... It is beautiful!! However, the font is *huge* (I'm using Celtic Trance theme), and my huge menu tree doesn't all fit on my 2560x1600 screen!! Is there somewhere that I can adjust that font size? Or is it hard-coded into the theme?

Ok, so Winstep Xtreme is a suite of applications designed to work together, which include NextSTART and WorkShelf (much like Excel and Word are part of the bigger Microsoft Office).

NextSTART handles the taskbar, menus and hotspots.

WorkShelf handles basically everything else (shelves/tabbed docks, docks, drawers, gridstacks, desktop modules).

Quickest way to access NextSTART Preferences is via CTRL + F12. For WorkShelf Preferences, CTRL + F11.

From there it should become more obvious how you can explore both applications and what they do.

Not sure, but if the floating things you were referring to were the shelf and a dock, you can disable them in the Docks & Shelves tab of WorkShelf Preferences.

As for the size of the menus in NextSTART, this depends on the theme (not familiar with the theme you mentioned, a screenshot or link to the theme would be nice). You can actually make menus BIGGER by going to NextSTART Preferences -> Menus tab -> Menu scaling, but there is no mechanism to make them smaller (since they are already small enough in most themes)

Without that screenshot I can only guess, but maybe you are running your display with high DPI (e.g. text size > 100%). In that case you can try going to NextSTART Preferences -> General tab -> More Options -> Disable menu scaling on high DPI settings.

Since you are still a newbie to this and given the sheer number of options available for you to play with (Winstep Xtreme is a power tool, after all), I advise you to backup your settings from time to time as you get things just the way you want them (NextSTART Preferences -> Advanced tab -> Backup button, WorkShelf Preferences -> Advanced tab -> Backup button). Just in case you paint yourself into a corner.

Hi, Winstep Admin!!
Thank ye for your prompt response...

Okay, issue 1 is resolved... once I went to NextStart => Preferences, and my solution was right there: turn off "Allow NextSTART to replace the Windows taskbar" ...
Problem solved!!

And you are correct, the first thing I need to do is find a tutorial that clarifies what all the screen components are actually called, so I can do useful help searches, and use meaningful terminology when I post here...

About the menu sizes, here's a link to Celtic Trance:
https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/winstep/901/

and at the risk of getting laughed at again (oh go ahead, I have thick skin!! )
Here's a screen shot of my Programs menu with Celtic Trance...
I had to put the image on Flickr, too large to upload here...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/derelllicht/53406854813

and no, I don't have my display set to high DPI... it's at default 100%...

WindowBlinds has a program which allows us to modified existing themes (Skin Studio)...
I wonder if Winstep has a similar theme editor??

Skinning options used to be in the GUI of the application, but that ended in 2012 with the new GUI because so few users are actual skinners and there was no reason to add to the already cluttered interface.

The idea was to make a separate skinning application a la skin studio, but that ended up not happening either. For now you have to do it the old way, by manually editing the themes files.

P.S. I really think you should use a more compact theme than Celtic for your menus lol

P.P.S. Dragon Xtreme by WebGizmos actually looks pretty similar to the theme you were using in Open Start Menu.