Windows 7 has this function when you click on the Start Button.
I cannot find the equivalent in WinStep. When I use the WS search from the NS menu, I get a Windows Explorer search window.

This is different & cannot be used to search for certain items
(e.g. search for "scheduled tasks")

The Windows 7 Start Button SEARCH is a very valuable tool. Can I get to it via Winstep (without closing down NextStart)?

Thanks.

Give Launchy a try - it's free.

To be frank, it is one of the few reasons that I'm not replacing my windows taskbar and start menu with the Nextstart one Another reason being jumplists.
With Launchy, you mimic the feature, but it requires adding a different keystroke to open Launchy. I'd rather stick with the default Windows start menu and just press the start menu button and start writing already, it's easier and if I can't find the program easily, I can just erase the whole search query and just browse the start menu. One of the reasons Windows is so popular is it's user-friendliness, remember?

If you could contact the Launchy developers and could collaborate to add Launchy support/integration to Nextstart start menu, you'd even have another reason for Windows XP users to use Winstep (since the search feature got implemented in Vista and continued in Windows 7, thus isn't available in XP. Launchy specifically states they support Windows XP as well).
The guy who has put it online on Sourceforge can be sent a message at:
http://sourceforge.net/sendmessage.php?touser=526685. Who knows, he might just be willing to help you out with the proper credits (and perhaps a small share of the sales). Hell, it might be possible to start writing a plugins system to allow plugins to be written by others for specific functions. With dedicated users that know how to write plugins Winstep could become quite popular. Or the whole plugins system could just bomb and you've only wasted time on it but got Launchy support. You never know.


You could use this as well to provide support for Chris'n'stack standalone stack program to have a solid start for the plugins system. But in the end it is up to you to decide what path to choose and where to invest time in. If you rather want to stick with just mentioning Launchy and the standalone stack program, go ahead.

Nexus Ultimate and Winstep Xtreme will have *native* Stacks support in the next release. Cris'n'Soft stand alone Stack was a great help in that it allowed me to focus on adding other more important (or as important) stuff to Nexus, but a native version was planned all along.

Same goes for jumplists and search (I did ask about adding basic jumplist support on the Beta forums some time ago and I was shot down). Launchy fills the gap in Search for now.

There is still a lot to do (yay!), and I'm sure you'll agree a LOT has been accomplished in a relatively very short time. It is not without its price though - I can't remember anymore what a real holiday feels like.

It's a BIG world out there, and it's physically impossible to add everything everybody wants. I'll keep on doing my best, though.

I just discovered the answer to my own question. Hope this helps others.

With WinStep Xtreme running, simply hit the "Windows" key on your keyboard. Voilà. This brings up the Windows 7 START MENU.

Well, if that is what you wanted (show the Windows Start Menu), you might as well have added a new Quick Launch button (hotspot) associated to the 'Start Menu' internal command. That will do the same thing, be close to the NextSTART Start Button, and you can click on it.

I could have done that but it is just as easy (quick) to hit the Windows 7 keyboard key !! Anyway, I'm now happy. Surprised no one suggested this earlier since what I wanted was a way to access the Windows 7 START MENU SEARCH box without having to shut down NextStart.

Or you could have just right clicked the Start button, selected "Associate to Windows Start Menu", then clicked the start button to access the Win7 start menu. Repeat to reverse the process and go back to the NextStart menu.

And bit more complicated and time consuming, but shows how flexible Winstep applications trully are as they usually give you several different ways to skin the same cat. Just pick your pill.