Yes, it did seem to load faster.

No issues at all on my Win10 machine. Fast boot is definitely a winner. Good work, Jorge!

I am using Windowblinds.. Here is a screenshot of my preferences dialog.

I have not yet tried the fast boot (on my Win 7/64 system)

I have not noticed anything different in using this version. No messages or errors. So far works just like it always has..(Still has the same ol' second monitor/Dock-undock stuff I wrote about before though.

Great! The difference should be quite noticeable, actually.

I added a check to see if the modified token we had to launch the applications retained the high privilege rights (it should not, but my guess is that WB was causing this situation), and used an alternate (but not as reliable) launching method via Explorer.exe if so.

Thanks for the screenshot, by the way! Looks like the Winstep GUI is now playing ball with WB, as it should. I was getting sick of seeing screenshots and videos of the Winstep UI being only half-skinned by WB and looking like crap because of it.

Please let me know if you see any inconsistencies. Also, what WB theme is that?



Thanks! Winner it seems to be.

Clipz by LightStar - http://www.wincustomize.com/explore/windowblinds/8056/

Eh... that pretty much looks like Windows native Aero.



Give it a try. If you run into the same problem Hankers did, we'll know for sure WB is to blame. In which case you can always download the fix linked to in the previous page.



The two MAJOR new features in this beta have to do with UWP apps in Windows 10 (you're running Win7) and Fast Boot, which you haven't tried yet (and Fast Boot's biggest impact is on Windows 10 anyway, because of the imposed start-up delay).



Well, that behavior is to be expected, kind of. I have three monitors, if I disconnect the one where Outlook usually is, Outlook will automatically move to my primary monitor. If I re-connect the monitor, it does NOT move back to where it previously was, it remains on the primary. I have to move it back manually.

User's don't usually go around connecting and disconnecting their monitors, except in cases such as yours. The only way around this I see is implementing some kind of multi-monitor profile, but it would be something complicated to pull off that would possibly benefit only a handful of users.

I can confirm that I got the UAC message after a Windows Update restart. I tried restarting again and have not gotten the message again.

Thanks, GodSponge.

Hmmm, with all this talk about Fast Boot I haven't seen any mentions to the other MAJOR feature in this beta, the new handling of UWP apps in Windows 10.

Any feedback from Windows 10 users regarding this?

Fantastic news about UWP compatibility (icon-wise). Great job, Jorge. Checking the beta out now.

Jorge, I did find some issues with UWP handling on my Win10 machine, which is a clean install of Win10. I installed Nexus dock 16.5, then installed the beta 16.6 per your instructions. I had the Store app already opened at the launch of Nexus dock and set Nexus dock to show running apps. The Store app icon defaulted to the generic "package" icon. So, I shut the Store app and reopened it, which then resulted in the correct icon. However, I left the Store app running then opened the Mail app. The correct Mail app icon did not show on the dock. Instead, the Store icon remained in the running tasks on the right, with the number "2" at the bottom of it to indicate that two UWP apps were running. When I hovered over the icon, I got a thumbnail of the Store app and also a "blank" thumbnail of the Mail app. I would have expected the Mail app to have it's own correct icon and thumbnail.

I tried this test again, but with the Mail UWP app opened first. I then opened another UWP app, but the running tasks only showed the icon for the Mail app, but with a number 2 next to the icon, to indicate 2 UWPs running. It didn't show a separate correct icon for the other UWP app.

I did not attempt to pin any UWP apps to the dock. My testing only involved launching multiple UWP apps to see how they were displayed in the running tasks of the dock. It seems like Nexus dock (on my system at least) only wants to show one UWP icon (the one launched first) and subsequently launched UWP apps are only represented by the icon of the app that was opened first, with that icon showing a number identifier for the total number of UWP apps running.

Whew...I hope this was clear and makes sense. Unfortunately, I do not have any screen shots, but I can try to get some for you.

Thanks for the report.

Strange, perhaps I broke something when making the final changes for the beta release.

Ok, please try the following: open a bunch of UWP apps one at a time, so the correct icon appears on the running tasks list at the right. Right click on then icon and select 'Pin to Dock'.

Once you have a bunch of different UWP apps pinned to the dock, open and close Preferences to force a refresh of the dock icons. Do each of the pinned UWP apps retain the correct icon? Can you run them?

Jorge, I got mixed results. These are my findings:
-Opening the UWP apps one at a time and then pinning each one to dock seems to work. The correct icon is used and it launches the correct UWP app.
-The windows for UWP apps sometimes minimize to taskbar instead of dock.
-Sometimes the generic "package" icon still shows up when a UWP app (not pinned) is launched from Start Menu. This is very inconsistent.
-Lastly, the issue with one UWP app icon representing multiple different UWP apps minimized to dock still persists. As you can see from the screenshot, both Store and Movies&TV are running and minimized to the dock. However, the Store icon shows a number 2 and contains the thumbnail for both apps, though the thumbnail for Movies&TV appears blank.

I can confirm some of Dino7405's findings.

Pinning each app separately leaves the correct icon on the dock. But after running them from the pinned icon, the first app started will still show a number in the corner. It will also be the only place where the thumbnails will pop up, except it only actually renders the first app's thumbnail.

Clicking on the pinned icons for the other apps do bring them to the front. Clicking on the first app does nothing unless you click on the thumbnail in the pop up. The blank thumbnails of course do nothing.

Ok, thanks for the reports. I'm going to look into this now that I have finished moving the effect bitmaps from the main executable(s) into an external DLL resource file.

Doing this will shave over 15 MB from future updates, since those bitmaps never change and therefore won't need to be updated again.

EDIT: Just to give you a real world example.

WorkShelf's executable was 30.4 MB. NextSTART's executable was 8,74 MB.

So, when downloading an update to Winstep Xtreme, at the very minimum the update would be about 40 MB (WorkShelf's 30 MB executable + NextSTART's 9 MB executable).

With the effect bitmaps moved to an external DLL, WorkShelf is down to a 15 MB executable and NextSTART is now a 6.44 MB exe.

Not on the next update (because the new DLL must still be uploaded to user's machines first) but on the one after that, instead of a 40 MB download you will have a 21 MB download.

50% less bandwidth usage and 50% less time wasted waiting for an update to finish downloading. Yay!

Yes, I can be geeky like that at times.

DAMN UWP apps, LOL! Poor Jorge having to deal with this! But Jorge, it's amazing that you were able to accomplish what you have so far and I'm certain you will figure out these other issues.