Winstep Wish List

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 11936

Thanks for the thumbs up!

Only one thing though: I know ObjectDock has problems, but Nexus is fully compatible with Windows 10.

Nutrynion · **Posted:** Wed Feb 10, 2016 9:55 pm

System Tasks Animations...

When you open an application and the icon appears for the task, it rises from the bottom.

When the application is closed however, it disappears into the upper left corner.

To me it seems kind of non-synchronous.

What if instead of disappearing into the upper left corner, opposite of how it appears, rather it should disappear sinking to the bottom, just like it rises?

Or sliding to the left since that is how the dock shrinks when it disappears?

Or the user could choose how they would like the animation to appear/disappear?

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 11936

The disappearing into a corner actually has another function: the dock is shrinking in size (width for horizontal docks) at the same time, so that when that icon is finally removed the removal of the extra dock tile is not so noticeable (i.e.; difference in dock widths before and after). This method is also employed to smoothly shift icons when drag & dropping new items into the dock.

A new item appearing on the dock is already not so subtle: the dock abruptly changes size and THEN the icon rises from the bottom.

Adding these 'transitions' is not very easy because of the internal structure of the dock, how it is rendered on the screen, and especially because of all the tricks employed to make everything happen faster than it ever would if the dock was rendered in a 'vanilla' way (i.e.; draw background, draw each and every icon plus their reflections, draw effects, draw overlays, etc...)

Nutrynion · **Posted:** Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:14 pm

Ah I see. More specifically then, with my setup, I use a separate dock to show open tasks, and for that I only have it set to show the icon (no thumbnail). So all I'm seeing is the icon and how it behaves.

But that's cool.

Nutrynion · **Posted:** Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:16 pm

Oh and yeah, I get it with all the drawing and effects. I like to keep it all as simple as possible. Hence I don't use reflections and all that. Though my system can handle it, I always take the professional approach and think how would I set this up in the office but still have it be functional? Minor animations are okay for me.

But that's just me. ha.

jennifernbowman1984 · **Joined:** Fri Feb 12, 2016 3:59 pm **Posts:** 2

I wish they would allow the Battery module in the free version on Winstep Nexus because I love using this dock.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 11936

jennifernbowman1984 wrote:

I wish they would allow the Battery module in the free version on Winstep Nexus because I love using this dock.

Jennifer, unlike what some people seem to think, I need to eat too. :-P

Winstep is my full time job.

So, if you really love the dock (and thanks for that, by the way) *and* you want to have the battery module, why not upgrade to Nexus Ultimate? You get your battery module (plus a bunch of other cool stuff) and I get another meal.

Deal?

jennifernbowman1984 · **Joined:** Fri Feb 12, 2016 3:59 pm **Posts:** 2

I'm not saying that, but what I like about Objectdock is they allow people to get free docklets to use on there dock which is fantastic and I have switch back to it. I know we all have to make a living, but that's okay if you don't make it for free. I like how they also made it cheaper for us to activate a full version of their program. Until then, I am sorry, but I will be using Objectdock.

Nutrynion · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:35 am

ObjectDock was nice when it came out, but just because it's cheaper should not be even minutely a reason a person chooses it over another. ObjectDock hasn't even been updated since July 2014. That's almost a full two years.

I wouldn't want to invest in a cheap product, not even the least, if it wasn't being currently maintained and up to speed with the latest O/S changes and UI functionalities.

For $20 bucks (and that price, mind you, is cheaper than when I just bought this a few weeks ago) because of the ever changing software environment and demand, $20 bucks is a good round about price especially for all that you get.

But I suppose you just don't want all the good stuff if you're that hard up on spending an extra $10 for older and outdated products.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 11936

Jennifer has asked me by email to delete her account from the forums. She claims there were some offensive comments directed at her.

I don't see any offensive comments here. Not mine, not from anyone else.

What I do see is a user who has absolutely no loyalty and goes from 'I love this dock' to 'I've switched back to ObjectDock' in a heartbeat, at the mere suggestion that people's hard work should be rewarded.

I sincerely don't know how people get this entitled. As if they, somehow, deserved that others worked for them for free. But when it's their turn to give back... there is always an excuse! :wink:

There is a reason Stardock is now only charging $9.00 for customization programs that used to cost $19.95. If you're intelligent, you will figure out why on your own.

If anyone should feel offended is me. All you have to do is read some of the latest threads in this forum to realize how much work and effort (blood, sweat and tears) was put into the new v16.2 version.

If you don't feel that is worth $20 to you, not a problem: you're welcome to stick to the free version, but don't come whining how it's a pity I didn't give all the new features away.

That Jennifer did this showed me that my decision to start reserving some of the new major features to the paid version of Nexus Ultimate, from v16.2 onwards, was spot on!

Currently there is no other dock out there with so many features as the *free* version of Nexus. If you want more, then you should give something back too. It's only fair.

Nutrynion · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2016 9:00 pm

Well said man, on that note, back to the Wish List...

Has there been any consideration regarding the Calendar module where, we could just have the date only (not the time as well) showing the current date and or day of the week (customizable)? And clicking on it opens the users preferred calendar app (like email checker?)

That would be cool.

And then perhaps the digital time module being separate as well where it just shows the time (not the date)?

Off to see about maybe adopting a second cat, a kitten for my 2 year old who just is too full of energy and needs a companion!

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 11936

Nutrynion wrote:

Has there been any consideration regarding the Calendar module where, we could just have the date only (not the time as well) showing the current date and or day of the week (customizable)? And clicking on it opens the users preferred calendar app (like email checker?)

Didn't we talk about this already on the previous page of this topic? :wink:

Nutrynion · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2016 9:28 pm

Not sure. Not with me anyway. Or maybe I forgot. I'm old. Lol

Nutrynion · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2016 11:52 pm

Ah I see the input here re: the Calendar. I am optimistic you can do it! If only I could help. No rush though.

winstep wrote:

Dino7405 wrote:

I have the Google Calendar icon pinned to my Windows 10 taskbar, but it isn't quite the same as having an icon that automatically updates to the correct date each day and that you can set to run the calendar app of your choice. I currently use many of the native Windows 10 "universal" apps (mail and calendar being two of them) so it would be great to have a dock with a calendar module/docklet that would allow me to launch the calendar app of my choice. Objectdock has this type of docklet built-in, but unfortunately, Objectdock has issues with Windows 10.

Having a 'calendar icon' on the dock that shows the current date is the easiest (and quickest) thing to implement. In fact, a calendar module has been high on the to-do list for a long time already.

And here lies the problem: Winstep modules are not simple icons. Well, ok, maybe under the free version of Nexus and Nexus Ultimate, but under Winstep Xtreme each module has a skinnable desktop version. And now we are not talking about a simple icon that self-updates anymore, but about a full-blown free-form skinnable calendar widget.

Furthermore, when I add a module, I go all the way in. I try to squeeze as much juice out of it as I possible can - some of the modules in WorkShelf would actually sell as stand-alone apps, or at least would be useful as such.

For instance, although not strictly a module, take the new Alarms feature in v16.2: there are whole applications (and some commercial) dedicated to do only that.

Anyway, I hope you understand what I am trying to say: adding a calendar module will not be a simple task.

The good news is that I started focusing on adding more modules once again. For many years Winstep applications featured the same modules: clock, recycler, weather, email checker, wanda, net meter, cpu meter and ram meter.

In v16.2 I re-wrote a ton of code (literally) to make it much, much, easier for me to add new modules in the future. The first result of this is the new battery module, also in v16.2.

The release after v16.2 will be dedicated to the Winstep Theme Builder. I don't expect a lot of time will pass between v16.2 and that one (the Theme Builder is already half-done).

Once the Theme Builder is out of the way, I was already dead set on adding another module. Not yet the calendar you want though, but a hard disk monitor with SMART based temperature monitoring plus pie charts for the files and folders that take up the most disk space, etc... (If you happened to see it at Wincustomize, imagine my face when I saw Stardock announcing SpaceMonger recently lol)

Perhaps I will also have the time to add a calendar module by then. Let's see how things go.

toniostarcevic · **Joined:** Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:58 pm **Posts:** 137

winstep wrote:

toniostarcevic wrote:

It's sad to not be able to select which tray icons are shown in the dock.

But you can, and that is why it makes no sense to add that feature to the dock itself, it would just be a repetition of what is already there. Just use Windows to do it (Windows Taskbar Properties -> Taskbar -> Notification Area -> Customize).

I've made that picture to show what i mean:
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img924/6263/rib6LM.jpg

When using windows to hide them, they are also hidden from Nexus.

Right now i'm using a workaround, by using the "hide tray icons"-function from the program "4T Tray Minimizer Pro".
It looks like this:
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img922/8839/DaIWsQ.jpg

But the feature is buggy as hell. The icons re-appear randomly, the clock jumps to the left side of the icons, and things like that. I think it's also the main reason for my regular explorer crashes.

I think it would be a useful and logical addition to Nexus, since you can even customize the tray icons. Also dragging them to change their position or to move them to sub-docks, just like any other dock icon, would be great.

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