I seem to have an annoying problem with NS in that the menu pops
up almost all the time. Whenever I click on a program's popup
menu or a dock flyout button or dialog that's over the desktop it cause
NS to popup.
Almost as if it's clicking through. Even a minute ago when I closed
my browser via the file menu it was enough to cause the menu
to appear.

Anyone know of a way to adjust sensitivity, if that's at all possible?

Marc

Of course it is! For some reason Winstep applications are known to be the most customizable programs under the sun (which also explains why their Preference panels look like the cockpit instrument panels of Boeing 747s ). Taken from the NextSTART User Guide, Global Preferences section:

The Double Click Delay can be used to specify if you want NextSTART to distinguish between single and double mouse clicks on a hotspot. This can be important if your hotspot covers the entire screen or you have icons spread all over the desktop. NextSTART is unable to distinguish if you are clicking on an empty area of the desktop or on an icon and it can be terribly confusing to double-click on an icon and have both your application and a NextSTART menu launched at the same time. To avoid this, when you first click on a hotspot NextSTART waits a little longer to see if there is another click coming. Once it has waited the time specified in Double Click Delay with no further clicks happening, it launches the menu. The default Double Click Delay value is calibrated with the normal interval Windows uses to distinguish between double clicks and two single clicks in quick succession. If this is not enough for you or you normally double click faster, you can respectively increase or decrease this value. Just remember that the higher the value the longer it will take for your menus to be launched. The opposite is also true. In fact, if your desktop hotspot does not cover any icons, you can set this delay to the minimum and your menus will launch immediately.

[Wow, just learned that hitting the escape key wipes out everything.
Now I gotta remember what I just finished writing. ]

Changing the double-click delay helped somewhat.
I don't have icons on the desktop (hidden) so that wasn't much
of a concern. The problem is that mouse clicks seem to be
passing through to the desktop/hotspot.

For instance, if I bring up NS's menu and close it via the X button
the menu will close and popup again. I can click 'til I'm blue in the
face and it'll never stay closed. Better to use the escape key.

If I click an item from a program's or systray icon menu that
extends over the desktop NS will pop up along with the selection.
It's guaranteed to pop up every time I click an app's close button.

I guess I can minimize the annoyance by setting the parent menu
to just stay open or change my hotspot to something other than
most of the desktop, like the reserved area I have near the bottom.

Using WinXP at the moment. Don't remember this problem under
Win98.

Marc

Can you please check your hotspots and let me know how many you have, what are they attached to and what activates them?

Here ya go,

Hotspot 0, Group Default
Apply Hotspot to Program Manager
Action: Show Menu
Launch w/Left Click on Hotspot
Area: Horizontal 1 1077, Vertical 1 863

Hotspot 2 (for litestep which I no longer use)
Applied to litestep

Hotspot 3, Group Extra
Applied to Program Manager
Launch w/Right Click on Hotspot
Area: about the same as Hotspot 0

Essentially I have most of the screen area not used by
a wharf/dock(*) as the hotspot.

Hope I didn't miss anything,
Marc

(*) Still awaiting Nexus.
IconDock is all I have.

Marc, I must confess that I am stumped! You seem to be having some kind of timing problem, but it doesn't make any sense: setting the Double Click delay to the maximum (i.e. rightmost clock symbol) should give you a delay of at least 1 second before NS reacts to a left mouse button click! I just tried it here and it works as expected.

You're using the latest NextSTART version (v3.3), right? Not sure what to suggest you at this point other than to change that Hotspot 0 activation method from 'left click on hotspot' to 'bump top left corner' or some other kind of screen edge bump...

That timing thing _is_ a bit odd.
The maximum double-click delay is in effect 'cause when I
purposely click on the desktop to get the menu there is a delay.

When I ask for it, there's a delay. When I don't want it it's instant.


I'll change my hotspot for the time being and check to see if
something else isn't messing with the mouse (so many tweaks
and utils on the system I don't know what's going on anymore).

Thanks,
Marc