I've read some reports on new users getting confused when they right click on a taskbar button and (apparently) nothing happening - yes, even a Cnet reviewer once trashed NextSTART because of this. Ah well.

Anyway, the current default is that right clicking on a task button minimizes the associated window while CTRL+Right clicking pops up the task's context menu. I personally think this is far more effective than Window's approach, and, even if you don't think so, you can change what each mouse button does what in Preferences.

However, the question still remains: what should be the default right click action?

I think it depends on who you're marketing to.

Those who select Winstep primarily for Workshelf and/or eyecandy don't need or want an alternative to the Microsoft conventions.

Those who want an alternative interface and a more powerful and flexible menuing system are likely to be receptive to improvements to Microsoft.

I'm in the second camp, and I prefer the current Winstep default. Keep it as it is!

On the other hand, Burt, those who want an alternative to Microsoft conventions are the ones most likely to poke around and quickly find out that you can actually customize mouse clicks on the taskbar - and change the Right Click action to minimize.

I know this is an old thread but felt compelled to respond to this:

...it isn't always true. Just as those who want eyecandy expect to see flashy things first and foremost (even though they can go and change themes, etc) those who are looking for more power and flexibility in a UI still expect to be "wowed" at first sight with efficient and/or innovative defaults (and then find all those extra feature "goodies" later). Just because they're power users, it doesn't make them any less likely to give an app a quick, cursory glance, and then toss it aside. They are, these days perhaps more than ever, even more fickle than the themer crowd. If a tool doesn't establish itself as 'useful' relatively quickly then it may never get a chance to shine.

Well that is an interesting take on it. I do look at a lot of software and I do toss some out very quickly, but only if I am looking for a specific feature and I don see it anywhere. For example, with Nextstart, I was looking for the ability to pop-up the main menu at the current cursor location. I often look for this specific feature from other quick launch programs, and if I don't see it in their features list, I won't even download it, unless it's not clear from the features list.

But on the other hand, if I really want some software to work and it looks pretty sophisticated, I will most likely download it and spend a lot of time digging through the docs and testing it.

It would be interesting to know which features people find more useful in both NextSTART and WorkShelf...