Hi folks

I'm a new user with a Winstep Xtreme license. I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

When I first started using the various utilities I decided I didn't really want to use NextStart initially so I created just a dock and a shelf. All of this is working well but I've now decided to go back and enable NextStart to create some custom menus but I can't seem to get it to start!

If I double-click the NextStart executable from the installation directory nothing happens. The app appears in the Windows Task Manager list of Processes but how do I actually get to use it?!

Sorry if I'm being particularly dim here.

first thing you can try is to go into task manager and end the nextstart.exe, workshelf.exe, and the wsxservice.exe. once that is done click your xtreme shortcut. once in awhile i'll have workshelf crash, and normally i can just click the xtreme shortcut to get it running again, but every once in awhile i have to do the above.

Thanks for the reply.

I've done what you suggest and I've rebooted but I still don't see anything related to NextStart. Am I going to have to do a restore to initial settings do you think?

For the record, I've been using Winstep for quite some time now, on Win7 Enterprise 64bit, and I've never had to do what CC says. Ever. I don't know what could be wrong with your setup, a restore might be a good idea.
Just saying, I've never had any kind of crash that needed to shut down all processes manually -- unless, of course, I was tinkering with something, in which case it doesn't exactly defy belief that it'd crash.
My 5 pence...
Cheers.

And killing a *service* from task manager (WsxService.exe in this case) is a TERRIBLE idea. That's not how you start and stop services, here is the correct way if you ever need to do that:

1. Go to Control Panel

2. Open Administrative Tools

3. Open Services

4. Look for the Service in question in the list of Services (in this case it would be 'Winstep Xtreme Service', for instance).

5. Double click the Service name.

6. In the dialog that pops up, click the Stop button.

That's how you properly stop a service. To re-start the service, click the 'Start' button, which becomes available in that dialog if the service is not running.

Linda, as for using NextSTART: before you stopped using it, you probably disabled NextSTART's alternative taskbar management. That would explain why you don't see anything change when you start it.

Look in the system tray: is there a NextSTART icon? If so, you can double click it to get to NextSTART Preferences. Otherwise, press CTRL+F12, which should do the same.

Ah yes, NextStart was a hidden icon within the System Tray so I've now got it back up and running and yes I had stopped the NextStart management.

Now back to the important task of tweaking...God I love tweaking!!!! I am such a geek.

Thanks for your help!

if you try to do too much with workshelf at one time it will crash. as for ending a process via the task manager there is nothing wrong with doing it that way. it is the way most people do it, and it is the way most people are trained to do it.

And the steps to reproduce that reliably are?



A Windows service is a very different beast - it's not related to the main application other than as a means to accomplish actions that would require elevation of the main application otherwise (i.e.; UAC prompt), so leave that alone. Killing it is a sure way to make all operations that require elevation fail.

Furthermore, a service is meant to be run by the OS itself at system start up (or via the Start button in the Services dialog), manually running it by double clicking the executable is NOT the same thing.

yes in some cases killing the process will kill the service, i agree with you on that point, however with the processes for winstep that is not the case. when i have worshelf crash it is faster to simply kill the processes and restart the xtreme app, rather than go through killing the services, restarting them, and then restarting xtreme. as for workshelf crashing i'm pretty sure it is because i'm using an app that uses most of my memory, and when i try to do more than a few things with the shelf while that app is running workshelf crashes. when the shelf crashes it usually takes nexus with it. normally i can just click the xtreme shortcut and be good to go, but every once in awhile i have to kill the winstep processes, then click the xtreme shortcut.

Ok, all I am saying is that you don't need to - and indeed shouldn't - kill the wsxservice.exe service.

jorge that's not compleyely correct. when the shelf and nexus won't restart by simply clicking the shortcut i have to kill all winstep processes to be able to relaunch xtreme. i know because i have tried more than a few times to do it by just killing the nextstart and workshelf processes.