Windows 10 / Xtreme v26.6

Recently started testing docks after years of only using the NextStart toolbar but have now noticed a problem.

On a restart the docks have extra space to the left, inside the dock itself - I presume this is some kind of placeholder glitch for the "Show Dock Control Icon" ? but can't be sure.

If I enable then immediately disable the control icon, the space disappears and docks shrink back to accommodate only the existing icons, as expected.

I don't need/want the control icon showing so it's a little annoying to have the extra space all the time.

Any way I can prevent this from happening ?

Note: One other dock with only a few static hotspots & 'openshell menu' does not show this behaviour, only the other two
(one with running/minimised apps & another with only the system tray) show this problem.

Only the 2 that have that have dynamic variable resizing seem to be affected ?



Thanks if anyone can help !

I am unable to reproduce that here, both on a dock showing only the systray and on a dock showing only the currently running applications.

What is that dock on the screenshot? Systray? Running applications?

Are you absolutely sure the dock control icon is disabled for these docks (vs. you using a fully transparent image for the dock control icon)?

This only happens after a restart of the application?

What happens when you right click on the empty space? Do you get the popup menu? If so, can you please post a screenshot of that menu.

If the right click context menu shows "Dock Entry Properties", can you please select that and post a screenshot of the Item Properties dialog?

Are those docks auto-hiding immediately after startup?

Also, try whatever else you can think of to see if you can figure out what that empty space actually is.

The dock in the image is the systray - nothing else.

Yes, sure no transparent image is used - clean install.
Dock control option is definitely unticked.

It happens on every reboot.

Right clicking the empty space shows this menu:


Dock Entry Properties - dialog box


Nothing is set to auto hide.

I have been testing all possible settings for the second day now, so I'm wondering if it's just a "me" problem

Edit: Only Workshelf is running.

Note 2: When Show Control Icon is enabled, it fills that space.

For visual reference:
[attachment=0]all.jpg[/attachment

OK, here are the issues I have with this:

1. You are running Windows 10, where the Winstep application can still show all native tray icons (unlike under Windows 11).

2. All the tray icons in your screenshots (and others as well) are obviously heavily customized which makes it extremely difficult for me to recognize what is what.

Since you have "Always show all system tray icons" UNCHECKED, the leftmost (blank) position on the tray icons dock should be (is?) the tray expansion button. Here is what a normal tray dock looks like under a Windows 10 VM:



Clicking the blue tray expansion arrow opens the Windows system tray overflow pop up, where all the other tray icons are.

Another thing I noticed is that the little symbols next to some of the settings in the Dock Properties dialog should look like little globes but they look nothing like that in your screenshot. Here is what they look like on a normal system:



Did you remove the Webdings font on your system?

Anyway, I think you might be using other Window customization tools that you failed to mention and that might be interfering with the Winstep software.

For instance, they tray expansion button will only appear if the Winstep software can locate the corresponding button in the actual Windows taskbar (the little up arrow). If you are running some software that replaces the Windows taskbar and the Winstep application cannot find that button, it is possible a weird issue like what you are showing occurs.

Either that or you have customized the tray button icon in the dock with a fully transparent image to replace the blue arrow, and when you right clicked on the dock as I asked you to, you did not click exactly where the (transparent) icon would be but somewhere outside of it (which would show the general dock menu in that screenshot instead of the tray expansion icon context menu).

I had 'show all icons in notification area' turned ON in windows itself, so the expansion button can be visible if the pref is flipped there.

Right clicking that expansion button shows the normal
'system tray expand button' properties dialog.



(the missing glyphs is due to no webdings font)

No other customisation software that I can think of, certainly nothing running, no taskbar tweakers or anything like that.

Will reboot with both those buttons visible.

I thought that might be the issue, but if I turn ON 'show all icons in notification area' in windows itself, all that happens is the dock showing me all tray icons in the Windows 10 VM... no initial blank space. Not even after restarting the software.

So no idea why that is happening there unless you have a blank/ghost tray icon or something like that.

Thanks for the assistance, I will keep at it !

Maybe even a fresh install from scratch, when my head has stopped spinning