When I run "refresh system tray", nothing happens. Since some system tray icons become invisible with time, I expected to see them reappear when clicking "refresh system tray". What does it in fact do? Thanks for answer.

What you need to do is to manually disable XP's auto hide of systray icons. Temporarily disable NS Task Management, right click on an empty space of the Windows taskbar, select Properties from the context menu and, in the Taskbar tab of the Windows Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog, UNSELECT 'Hide Inactive Icons'.

When I disable the sys. tray icons in Windows, all the icons appear under NS and none ever get hidden. I therefore do not understand what the "REFRESH TRAY ICONS" purpose is. What does it do? Thanks.

NextSTART 'hacks' the Windows systray in order to make the background transparent. Very rarely (or when one of the systray icons changes and NextSTART is not aware of it) a glitch can occur in which the systray is improperly rendered. In such a case, the Refresh Systray command can come in handy.

There is one thing holding me up from registering Winstep: I cannot get the WS system tray to behave properly (as I desire it to do). I want to be able to hide SOME tray icons. This does not seem possible under WS. If I tell the Windows system tray to hide some icons that does not translate to WS (see previous posts). The ONLY solution seems to be to purchase a copy of SystrayX ($18) which can customize the tray under Windows & have it HOLD under WS.

Do you know of any other way to solve this problem (example via a freeware program) at no cost? Thanks.

John

None, that I am aware of. I'm actually surprised that a program like SystrayX exists, since the Windows Systray as always been a very difficult beast to tame: Microsoft provides no public API (Application Programming Interface) into it and the only real solution - until now - was to replace the whole thing with your own version. Problem is that you could only do this, without conflicting with Explorer, if you replaced Explorer with your own Shell as well. That alone created a whole new set of problems.

Anyway, I'm surprised you are still reconsidering wether to register NextSTART or not over such a small thing as this Systray functionality. NextSTART might not allow you to hide specific tray icons as XP does, but, on the other hand, it does allow you to collapse/uncollapse the whole systray via the Systray Button, and it can even do that automatically. A quite viable alternative if you ask me.

Plus, the systray is only a very small part of NextSTART. For me, NextSTART's true power lies on its hotspot system and on a menu system that is extremelly flexible and powerful, with the added bonus of being completely user-customizable.

I know it is a very small thing, but with so many tray icons these days (with some that I cannot manually get rid of - Microsoft-based), it is nice to unclutter the tray while at the same time being able to immediately access certain other icons. Anyway, I am going to register Winstep. If I decide I really need SysTrayX, then I will purchase it (it's a great little utility). By the way, when I register NS & WS, how do I obtain the FONT BROWSER program?

Font Browser is part of the WinStep Full Pack package.
With one registration you'll get all three.

I already have WS & NS configured on my computer. Isn't the "full package" the same price as WS + NS ? Thus, if I don't want to reinstall the "full package", is there a way to register my current WS + NS & then obtain the font browser?? Thanks.

Winstep Full Pak is just NextSTART+WorkShelf+FontBrower in a single, easy to install, package.

In terms of pricing, purchasing Winstep Full Pak (which is, in effect, purchasing NextSTART + WorkShelf since FontBrowser does not count because it is freeware) is cheaper than buying both applications individually - call it a quantity discount, if you want.

So:

FontBrowser = $0 (freeware)
NextSTART = $24.95
WorkSHelf = $29.95
---------------------------
Total = $54.90

Winstep Full Pak (WorkShelf+NextSTART+FontBrowser) = $39.90 e.g. NextSTART + WorkShelf with a $15 discount.

I understand that but can I simply register my current WS + NS for $39.90 and then obtain (download) the font browser? I am trying to avoid having to uninstall my NS + WS in order to reinstall the "full package". I'm obviously confused over this issue!

Hehe, sure you can! The full package exists for convenience only: it installs NS, WS and FB in a single go. What you get is *essencially* the same as installing each application separately.

Since you already have NS and WS installed on your system, the only remaining thing to do is to download and install FB. You can do so from the Winstep web site.

When you are ready to order, click on the 'Winstep Full Pak' Buy Now link also on the Winstep web site. This will entitle you to your $15 discount for purchasing both applications at once. The next business day or so you will receive a key file for NextSTART and another for WorkShelf by email (no key is necessary for FontBrowser because FontBrowser is freeware).

Hope this clears it.

Yes it clears it up. Thanks.