First Betas of v26.10 (Beta 1) are out:

Winstep Xtreme beta:
https://www.winstep.net/xtreme-beta.zip

Nexus Ultimate beta:
https://www.winstep.net/ultimate-beta.zip

This is a beta and MUST be installed ON TOP of a full v26.9 OR LATER installation. Do NOT uninstall anything first, just exit all running Winstep applications and run the beta setup file.

There is no need to backup your settings first, but it does not hurt if you do either.

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This beta is to give you something to play with during the weekend (the new Chroma Shelf themes which will be installed together with the beta).

Don't assume this is the only thing, the list of additions and fixes is once again beginning to get as long as my arm (see WorkShelf change log below to have an idea).

Reason I am releasing this so early is because I'm about to do some deep and extensive changes to the code in preparation for the Winstep Theme Builder and I don't know how long it will take until the code has stabilized enough for a new beta. So, enjoy!

P.S. If WsMMPlay.exe crashes while playing the clock voice, do not blame the Winstep application. Blame Microsoft's October patch Tuesday preview.

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Version 26.10 build 1973

New Features and Improvements

Shelf Themes and Colorization

• • Added ten new Chroma Shelf themes specifically designed for Shelf and per-tab colorization: Chroma Slant, Chroma Square, Chroma Curve, Chroma Capsule, Chroma Brushed, Chroma Inset, Chroma Bezel, Chroma Aqua, Chroma Aqua Frame and Chroma Minimal.
• • Added an option to colorize only the active Shelf tab.
• • Icon label text now automatically switches between black and white for improved contrast when the Shelf body is colorized with the active tab color.
• • Added a TabReverseDrawOrder theme setting, allowing Shelf theme designers to reverse the stacking direction of overlapping tabs for slanted, curved or asymmetrical tab designs.
• • Added support for vertically overlapping Shelf tabs with the Shelf body through the new TabBodyOverlap theme setting. This specifies how many pixels the tabs extend over the top of the body, allowing active tabs to appear naturally connected while preserving the body’s top edge outside the tab area.
• • Added a new TabMiniJustificationMode theme setting, allowing mini-tabs to remain anchored to the Shelf edges (1) or inner mini-tabs in left, center or right justified tab groups to be rendered as full inactive tabs (2).
• • Added support for loading and rendering custom Shelf mini-tab symbols and scroll arrows at DPI-scaled resolutions, providing sharper symbols at high DPI settings. They no longer need to be 16x16 pixel bitmaps.
• • Improved compatibility with overlapping and slanted Shelf themes that do not provide dedicated mini-tab bitmaps by using the inactive-tab bitmap for the mini-tabs instead.

Shelf Icon Layout and Thumbnail Loading

• • Reduced the minimum vertical icon spacing in Shelves by 9 pixels at 100% DPI, allowing more compact Shelf layouts.
• • Updated the vertical icon spacing slider of Shelves to display the actual vertical spacing, excluding the space reserved for labels and reflections. Displayed values will therefore differ from those in previous versions, without changing existing spacing settings.
• • Improved vertical alignment of Shelf icons and labels, and adjusted selection highlights to fit tighter icon spacing.
• • Changed Shelf thumbnail lazy rendering to use spatially distributed progressive loading, revealing thumbnails across the visible area instead of sequentially.

Net Meter

• • Added an option to disable Wi-Fi signal strength monitoring to the Net Meter settings dialog.

Fixes

Shelf Themes, Tabs and Scroll Arrows

• • Fixed the right mini-tab becoming narrower than the left mini-tab when using overlapping tabs.
• • Fixed overlapping or slanted tab themes without dedicated mini-tab bitmaps by automatically using the inactive tab bitmap, reserving sufficient space for the control symbols and centering them correctly.
• • Fixed the horizontal positioning of DPI-scaled scroll arrows when rendered inside a fixed-width Shelf body edge.
• • Fixed right-justified Shelf tab groups leaving a larger gap between the right mini-tab and the edge of the Shelf than full-width tab groups.
• • Fixed a memory leak that occurred every time the Shelf was redrawn when using a theme where the Shelf tabs are embedded into the Shelf body and Shelf scaling was not 100%.
• • Fixed the left mini-tab symbol appearing as pressed on mouseover if the user clicked on it and then moved the mouse away before releasing the mouse button.
• • Scroll arrows now automatically shrink when needed to prevent overlap in compact Shelf layouts.

Shelf Icons, Thumbnails and Auto-Collapse

• • Fixed Shelf icon labels not being perfectly centered within their tile area due to differences between GDI and GDI+ text width measurements.
• • Fixed Shelves and Drawers not auto-collapsing when focus was on another window if the Search Box was open.
• • Fixed Shelf icons sometimes retaining the wrong size after changing the Shelf’s icon size.
• • Fixed a potential memory leak when switching Shelf tabs while a thumbnail was being retrieved.

Dock Drag and Drop

• • Fixed copying a dock to a Shelf sometimes creating a reference to the original dock instead of an independent copy.
• • Fixed moving a dock to a Shelf leaving it incorrectly classified as a standalone dock, causing an integrity check error.
• • Fixed dragging a dock onto another dock’s shortcut bypassing the icon lock and the “Allow attaching sub-docks to existing application shortcuts” setting.
• • Fixed copying a dock onto a shortcut sometimes moving the original dock instead.
• • Fixed replacing a sub-dock’s parent icon via drag and drop losing its attached sub-dock when “Allow attaching sub-docks to existing application shortcuts” was enabled.
• • Fixed dropping an item with its own sub-dock onto another sub-dock’s parent potentially orphaning the existing sub-dock when “Allow attaching sub-docks to existing application shortcuts” was enabled.
• • Fixed shortcuts configured to accept multiple file arguments intercepting drops intended for their attached sub-docks when “Allow attaching sub-docks to existing application shortcuts” was enabled.
• • Fixed dragging running application icons within a dock’s tasklist sometimes placing them in the wrong position.

Dock and Shelf Duplication, Deletion and Detachment

• • Fixed deleting docks with nested sub-docks or Stacks sometimes leaving orphaned objects behind.
• • Fixed duplicating docks containing circular sub-dock references potentially causing infinite recursion.
• • Fixed duplicating Shelves, Grid Stacks and Launch Pads sometimes omitting items that referenced the same nested object from separate branches.
• • Fixed duplicated in-Shelf docks being incorrectly marked as dock-based sub-docks.
• • Fixed the initial vertical position of a duplicated bottom-oriented dock being calculated from the original dock’s horizontal position.
• • Fixed the initial orientation and placement of docks detached from vertical Shelves or on portrait monitors.
• • Fixed a sub-dock detached from its parent dock disappearing as soon as the user clicked somewhere else.

Net Meter

• • Fixed a small memory leak and potential crash when polling Wi-Fi signal strength information.
• • Fixed the Net Meter potentially monitoring the wrong network adapter after an IP address change.

Media Player

• • Fixed a potential buffer overrun in the WsMMPlay IPC code when processing unusually long MCI command strings.

Habemus Papam!

Well, just the beginning, really - I managed to get the Theme Builder running in the IDE again. I also isolated the code for the skinning settings of the various objects into individual modules that can be shared between the actual applications and the Theme Builder.

This way I don't have to manually keep the settings in sync between the various applications every time something changes or a new setting is added.

Still a metric ton of work ahead, though.

Respected Jorge, Will the program be available in other languages, including Russian, or only in English?

Initially English only, but I might eventually translate to other languages (machine translated, though).

OK, the Winstep Theme Builder has been brought into the modern age:

It now supports per-monitor high DPI scaling, works with all available UI modes, and is ready for translation into multiple languages.

The REAL work, however, is only just beginning.

Thank you very much! We are looking forward to the release of this program!

Grab a chair.

And since working on the Theme Builder is boring work, I decided to add an extra optional feature for the All Programs tab type in WorkShelf/Nexus Ultimate.

Currently, all entries are sorted alphabetically, with a letter indicator separating each group. They still appear as one continuous block, though.

For a cleaner layout, I added a new “Start each letter group on a new row in the All Programs tab” setting. When enabled, each letter group starts on a fresh row, keeping the letter indicators aligned along the left side of the Grid Stack or Shelf. This makes it easier to spot the letter groups and find what you are looking for.

The tradeoff is more scrolling, but I think the cleaner layout is worth the extra space.

Also added a new tint colorization effect inspired by Apple's "Clear Icons" appearance.

Previously, selecting either solid black or solid white as the tint color in Tint mode would simply convert the bitmaps to grayscale.

Black still produces normal grayscale, but white now produces a "translucent white" effect, with darker areas becoming more transparent while brighter details remain visible. The result looks a bit like the clear "glass" icons used with Apple's "Liquid Glass" design in macOS Tahoe 26, especially when combined with a glass dock background.

The busy background and translucent dock in the screenshot below are deliberate, making it easier to see how the underlying content shows through both the dock and the icons.



Below is Apple's original Clear Icons effect on the macOS dock for comparison:



It is such a pity that Microsoft removed blur-behind for translucent irregular shaped backgrounds in Windows 10...