Winstep Xtreme/Nexus Ultimate v16.5 *public betas* released

Gregory2001 · **Joined:** Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:25 pm **Posts:** 382

I am only seeing an orange color. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12283

Gregory2001 wrote:

I am only seeing an orange color. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

I don't know.

Show me a screenshot of your Color Settings dialog in the Themes tab of WorkShelf Preferences, please. And with your wallpaper visible too, please.

Gregory2001 · **Joined:** Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:25 pm **Posts:** 382

It's now blue after a reboot. It will change to the color of the wall at startup and then remain that color until the next startup.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12283

Ok, I think that might have to do with the way Windows changes wallpapers in a slide-show. There were a few problems regarding this that I should have already fixed (at least it's working fine here in a Windows 10 VM rotating wallpapers every minute).

Either that or, if you are using the utility you mentioned, the app might not be broadcasting to the system (as it should) that the wallpaper has been changed. What happens if you change the wallpaper via Windows?

What version of Windows are you running, by the way?

Gregory2001 · **Joined:** Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:25 pm **Posts:** 382

I'm using Windows 7. The program I am using is the Photo Dream using Deskscapes.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12283

What happens if you change the wallpaper manually via Windows?

Since Deskscapes can also display videos on the desktop, I doubt very much that it uses the standard way to change the wallpapers. It probably uses some kind of overlay and the actual wallpaper remains the same underneath it. Just guessing, here.

Gregory2001 · **Joined:** Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:25 pm **Posts:** 382

Yes, that's it. It just won't work with Deskscapes. Manually via Windows works fine. What program should I use? Thanks.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12283

I don't know, but applications to slide show wallpapers are very, very, easy to make. There should be a ton of them available for free - did you try searching Google for one already?

I would suggest using Window's built-in slide show method, but I think that one is limited to changing wallpapers every minute or so.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12283

winstep wrote:

Ah, and something else: currently you need to enable colorization independently on both NextSTART and WorkShelf. I think this is probably a bit stupid, since - unless disabled - changing a theme in WorkShelf also changes it in NextSTART and vice-versa. I think colorization should be a part of this theme integration as well, if you enable it for WorkShelf logically you should also want it automatically enabled in NextSTART... or not?

Turned out to be a bit more difficult to implement properly than anticipated, but it's done! If Theme Integration is enabled (as it is by default so when you change a theme in WorkShelf the theme is also changed in NextSTART) then colorizing a theme in WorkShelf will also automatically colorize it in NextSTART and vice-versa.

winstep wrote:

It was while I was admiring this that another idea occurred to me: text colors are not colorized (nor could they with the old tint colorization method) but, if you use the new Hue shift method, it can actually be done as well, since this method preserves the luminance and saturation of the original colors (so you don't run the risk of the text becoming invisible against the background as it could happen using the old tint method).

What I am not sure is if I should make this optional (i.e.; add a 'Colorize text' option) or simply colorize the text regardless and be done with it?

And, of course, also ended up implementing this as an option enabled by default, and this one was a lot easier to implement.

Making this an option allows the user to colorize a theme while still being able to tinker with the font colors to his liking via the Fonts dialog in the Themes tab of Preferences.

Now I am left with one final decision to make: when the wallpaper is gray (or black & white), the theme is gray scaled to match if 'colorize with the dominant color of the desktop background' is on.

Logically the text color is 'colorized' into a shade of gray as well, but, in this particular case, I'm not sure if preserving the original text colors of the theme wouldn't be better. All colors look good with gray, and this would add a much needed touch of color to what would otherwise have become an all gray theme.

What do you guys think?

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12283

According to Microsoft own rules, when the Windows wallpaper changes a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message, with SPI_SETDESKTOPWALLPAPER in wparam, is sent to all top level windows.

I use this system notification when 'Colorize with dominant color of desktop background' is enabled to know when the wallpaper has been changed so the theme can be automatically re-colorized.

Amazingly enough, I never used the Windows 7 desktop wallpaper slideshow function.

I just did now and guess what? Even though under Windows 10 (I have been doing all my testing related to this feature on a Windows 10 VM lately) I do get a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message, under Windows 7 no message is ever sent by the system. The Windows 7 slideshow simply changes wallpapers *silently*.

So now I have to waste yet more time to work-around this crap. All because Microsoft isn't even capable of following their own rules!

At least I noticed that this was happening BEFORE the release. Sigh.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12283

Found and plugged a memory leak on the Shelf while working on this issue (which has been solved, wallpaper hot-track now works correctly with Win 7's wallpaper slideshow). Not bad.

This release is coming out with forceps! lol

vectornut · **Posted:** Thu May 26, 2016 3:30 pm

winstep wrote:

This release is coming out with forceps! lol

Get the salad spoons, man! (okay, yeah, Bill Cosby turned out to be a total creep, but he used to be hilarious.)

I turned on the "Colorize by dominant color of desktop background" and checked the checkbox for "Colorize by shifting hue instead of tinting" and I agree, doing that should by default do it globally, not just in one or the other. In fact, I'm not sure it should even be an option to only do it in one program. As for the font, with my current theme I'm not sure I'd want the font to change color, but it would be a good idea to at least make it an option, too.

I did discover something you can look into. My current theme I'm using is RhodiumX_NS, which is old enough that not all the modules have skins. On the modules that don't have skins, it's not changing the background color of the default grey box. Also, something happened and caused WS to change colors while NS didn't and my wallpaper didn't change, so now my WS is one color and my NS is a different color. When I go into WS options, the preview shows one color, but my actual WS is a different color, and applying doesn't change it back to the color shown in the preview.

vectornut · **Posted:** Thu May 26, 2016 3:46 pm

Update: I'm not sure why, but I had to exit and restart Winstep to get the colors to update. I tried going into settings, turning off colorizing, clicking apply (which set things back to the default colors of the theme just fine), then turning it back on and applying, but that returned each app to the colors they already had been instead of the color showing in preview. Exiting and restarting Winstep updated the colors to both be the same and both match the current wallpaper. I'm using Windows 10 with the built-in wallpaper changer set to change my wallpaper every half hour.

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12283

Forceps, I tell you, forceps!

Anyway, it is now officially out. Give it a try and see if the new version works correctly with the wallpaper slideshow etc.

Windy · **Joined:** Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:47 pm **Posts:** 933

winstep wrote:

Something else you might want to play with, and the reason why I made some changes to the customization settings of the battery module in this version, so you could use this:

The above is something I saw when first implementing the battery module and that I kind of fell in love with. Love that cute cartoon look, so I ended up purchasing the rights to use that image.

To customize your battery so it looks like this, here is what you need to do:

1. Download the multiple-state PNG strip from HERE.

2. Unzip the PNG file.

3. Open the Dock Properties panel of any dock (doing it this way so the instructions are valid for both Nexus Ultimate and Winstep Xtreme) and go to the 'Content' tab.

4. Select the Battery Monitor Module.

5. Change the Style to Vertical.

6. Click the Change Icon button.

7. Make sure the Vertical icon style is selected in the Change Icon dialog.

8. Browse to the cartoon-battery.png file you extracted above (optionally if you still have the containing folder open, just drag & drop the PNG strip to the icon preview panel)

9. Press OK to close the dialog and click on the 'Battery Monitor Settings' button.

10. Unselect the 'Overlap information on battery icon' setting.

winstep wrote:

In other news it seems nobody liked the alternate cartoon battery style much. Only one download of the PNG strip file lol

Jorge, it's possible that part of the reason a feature like that didn't have more DL at the time of the posting is that some people may not own a laptop. I don't know how many DL there are now, but in my case the reason I didn't DL them is because I don't have a laptop. It's also possible that enough people didn't see this thread.

I think those battery icons are awesome!! I would DL them in a heartbeat. A friend that I had purchase Winstep Xtreme has laptops and I'll install it on theirs. I still haven't installed any of the latest versions on their computers.

Oh wow! I just thought of something. It totally slipped my mind. My friend purchased it several years ago so they won't be able to do a free update. I told a couple of them (he has it installed on his and his wife's laptop) I was testing out the latest versions before updating it for them. I'm going to have to tell them the bad news. I hope they don't beat me up! :lol:

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Winstep Xtreme/Nexus Ultimate v16.5 public betas released