I'm using Winstep Xtreme, version 15.9.

I also run VirtualBox, with a Windows XP guest OS; I run guest OS in Seamless mode, so its taskbar sits just above the Winstep taskbars. (Without Winstep, guest OS taskbar sits just above Host OS taskbar).

I have a "confusion" of some sort, however, when I run games such as Divinity: Original Sin, or Fallout 4. When I switch from game back to Windows Desktop (either by task switching, or by closing the game). Initially, I see the two Winstep taskbars, but no WinXP taskbar. After a few seconds, it switches to main WS taskbar and WinXP taskbar, then after a few more seconds switches to some other combination of bars. Most of the time, it eventually gets back to the correct three-bar display, but occasionally just gets stuck with one or more of the bars permanently not accessible. In that situation, the only way to recover is to terminate both WS Xtreme and WS Nexus and restart them.

If I close Winstep, this problem does not occur at all with Host and Guest taskbars.

Is there something that I can do to make Winstep deal with these changes more coherently??

Hope you realize how much into uncharted territory you are. Winstep Xtreme was made to run on top of a specific Windows version - not TWO at the same time.

As such, Xtreme looks for a single taskbar window (naturally assuming there is only one) and hides the first it finds so it doesn't conflict with NextSTART's taskbar. In your case it appears that sometimes it finds the XP taskbar first, other times the host OS taskbar.

My best advice is for you to create a new hotspot associated to the 'Toggle NS task management' internal command. When the wrong taskbar is hidden, instead of exiting and re-starting Xtreme you simply click that hotspot button twice and, hopefully, things will sort themselves out.

Also, XP in seamless mode, now that Microsoft has completely dropped support for it? You're playing with fire and making your host system vulnerable to malicious attacks.

Okay, I think I have a solution for this bug. I moved the guest OS taskbar over to the side of the screen; not really where I want it, but if the author doesn't consider it an issue, this will have to do. It's better than uninstalling Winstep, which I use for the same reason that I use WinXP - because the modern Windows UI is ugly as piss!!

Winstep is beautiful, but only affects a few objects; WinXP visual styles were beautiful, and I really miss them... so I run WinXP as a guest, so I can still enjoy them.

Wait a sec... I just re-read what you wrote. You mention Winstep *taskbars*, not taskbar (so more than one). Considering Winstep Xtreme only has one replacement taskbar (provided by NextSTART), are you calling a collapsed Shelf a taskbar?

Perhaps a screenshot of your desktop would help me understand better.

Oh, yes I meant the shelf and the taskbar... don't have my Winstep terminology down pat very well.

Anyway, my technique of moving the guest-OS taskbar over to right-hand side of screen, seems to have resolved the confusion when closing games, so probably no reason for you to spend any time on it, especially if I'm about the only one using a Guest OS this way.