Whenever Windows boots up and the desktop becomes visible, the Winstep program is also visible from the start. I have the option set to auto-hide Winstep so I'm not sure why it does this. Also when I mouse over the icons they are unresponsive as well. The only way to fix this is to open up the Preferences window and click "ok". After that, the icons are in fact responsive and everything seems fine after that.
This is a rather annoying bug and I am close to actually buying the Ultimate version but I refuse to pay for a buggy application. If you could help me get this fixed then I will highly consider purchasing Winstep as well as tell my family and friends about it.

once winstep starts it looks like something else is stealing focus keeping winstep from collapsing. you need to determine what program is actually the problem.

Are you serious? How would I go about determining the problem? All other applications on my PC start up just fine which leads me to believe that the problem lies within Winstep itself.

What version of Nexus are you running? You can determine that in the top right corner of the About tab of Nexus Preferences.

12.2 is the version.

What happens if you exit Nexus and then run it manually by clicking the desktop icon (instead of being run automatically after a reboot)? Does it still refuse to auto-hide?

If so, try the following then: open Nexus Preferences, go to the Advanced tab, click the Troubleshooting Options button. Make a backup of your current settings then click the 'Reset Settings Only' button.

This will reset all settings to default (including the current dock background) but it will NOT change the actual content of your dock.

Now press Ok in Preferences to apply the changes, open Nexus Preferences again, go to the Behavior tab, click the Advanced button and turn the 'Immediately hide or collapse the dock on startup' setting on without changing any other setting. Apply the changes and exit Nexus, re-start Nexus again.

Does it behave correctly this time?

Sorry, from your reply I couldn't be sure if Nexus auto-hide at startup is malfunctioning even when you run Nexus manually by clicking on icon in the desktop.

Is it?

You see, here Nexus will hide properly when it starts if the 'Immediately hide or collapse the dock on startup' setting is enabled. Nobody else is complaining about this problem either, so whatever is causing this issue on your system is not as simple as you seem to think.

Also, if somebody finds a real bug, or at least one I can reproduce here, I will fix it regardless of that person buying the product or not. Because of this I find it mildly amusing that you trying to 'bribe' me into fixing it.

I have 'Immediately hide or collapse the dock on startup' checked and upon boot-up the Nexus dock does not auto-hide. After I open the preferences window and click "Ok" the auto-hide works just fine. My point is that I shouldn't have to open the "Preferences" menu just to get the dock to work as it should, therefore it's not actually worth paying for at this point.
Thanks for your time.

And you *still* didn't answer the question I already asked twice, so I can't help you either, sorry...

BeKure, restart your comp, but before opening prefs and after everything is completely loaded click on a blank spot on you desktop and see if nexus hides. my roommate has his setup to hide when he clicks on the desktop. since no one else seems to have the problem i have to assume a 3rd party app is the culprit. a lot of times if you uninstall the winstep product and reinstall it will no longer be effected by the particular 3rd party app. also if you haven't tried it yet open you props and change anything, apply, change back, and apply again. too many times with various programs i've seen a feature not working and all i do is change one setting, and then change it back and then it starts working. below are images of my settings.

BeKure, have you set all your settings to the same as mine in all three screens i posted? i noticed you have a few things different than mine in your screenshots.

I just set my settings to match yours exactly and still no luck. Thank you for trying to help.

BeKure, what I recommend you do is to make a video and post the link to it here. If Jorge sees exactly what is going on it might help him more easily determine what's going. If you don't have software to make a video, here's what I use. It has quite a few other features that you should find handy.

http://screencapturer.com/

From what I've read so far, it appears as ChuckysChild said, it's probably a program that you have installed on your computer that is causing the problem. From my experience on this Forum, about 98% of the time it isn't a Winstep product that is causing the problem.

If I had a dollar for every time this happened on this Forum, I would be rich!!