Yep, I use Actual Window Manager as monitor extender tool.

Nexus however behaves the same if I quit AWM.

Actually, I can't even select monitor #1 in Nexus -- Nexus then selects monitor #3 automatically in the monitor dropdown list.

If I select monitor #2 (the monitor Nexus erroneously considers as the primary monitor), Nexus keeps the selection but still docks to monitor #1 (the actual primary monitor).

OK I'm about ready to move on. Although years ago when I tested many docks, Nexus for reasons I don't quite remember anymore won the race, the situation might be different by now.

Sadly, Nexus is just not fun anymore.

- Nexus doesn't activate reliably (not even if it is docked to a screen border btw.). Instead, most of the time it needs multiple runs-up with the mouse in order to (maybe) turn up then, however then often behind, not in front of the current window.

- Nexus has started to develop yucky graphics errors with the "grow" animation recently

- The Nexus configuration dialog is a confusing nightmare, some options are present twice in different tabs, others so obscure that obviously they couldn't even be translated, others buried in cascades of Advanced -> Other -> Blah -> Extended buttons and dialogs -- oh well.

Thus, thanks already for any tips about which free dock tool currently could be regarded the most reliable and simple one for the starting of programs, and which one simply manages to show up RELIABLY if the respective screen border is hit.

I'm sorry, but this is the way I feel about Nexus currently.

Cheers David.P

I have a feeling it's the fact that you're using multiple monitors that's causing most of the problems. I've been using Winstep in various computers and I've never seen the problems you describe; docks appear when the screen edge is bumped, they also appear above other windows (assuming they are set to appear above other windows) and I have absolutely never seen any corruption or errors.
I cannot answer as to why it happens in your case, nor can I provide tech support to find out about your system settings, drivers or other applications might be interfering, or even if your settings are consistent or which 'edges' you're trying to use, but sure, if something isn't working for you, you're entitled to search around for something that does.

Regarding the configuration, sure it's big, and that is because there are a lot of options and settings. They have to be *somewhere* and Jorge has been trying to make it easier and more intuitive for many years. He even asked if anybody had a better suggestion, but noone did. Frankly, I too could not see how it could be made simpler. If you think you have a better idea, by all means, do so.

So, it was working fine for a long time but it *suddenly* started developing yucky graphic errors? Shouldn't this tell you that the problem is not with Nexus but with something you installed recently that might be interfering with it?

Operating Systems, especially an open one like Windows, are very complex things. And you have millions of possible software and/or hardware combinations all competing for resources: sometimes 3rd party software will interfere with other 3rd party software.

When something like this happens it is usually system specific, i.e.; it is a problem that can only be diagnosed on that user's PC by the user himself and through trial and error.

If the user then manages to find which specific software combination is causing problems, I usually still try to fix the problem, even though it's not a fault of Winstep's software per se.

Understood. Actually, I have changed my graphics card from Nvidia to AMD recently. The AMD however works without errors otherwise.

What's more, the graphic errors with Nexus (icons overlap each other when "growing" for the first time on mouse hover -- until the dock has been fully stretched at least once) only appear when Nexus is free floating.

I'd rather have Nexus docked to the screen border anyway, however as I have described earlier this is not possible because Nexus erroneously confuses screens 1 and 2, and puts itself always on screen 1 when I want it on screen 2.

Anyway, since almost all other main dock tools seem to be either abandon- or payware in the meantime, could be that I actually stick with Nexus for some more time, hoping that the errors will get fixed eventually, and that after like 10 years I finally manage to find my way through its settings jungle...

Keep up the good work
Cheers David.P

OK now I had Nexus docked to te left border of my leftmost monitor for months. It however usually takes TWO to THREE times hitting the screen border with the mouse until Nexus appears.

If I have worked on another monitor beforehand, Nexus even does NOT appear at all when hitting its screen border. I need to CLICK on a window on the leftmost monitor and then hit the screen border to make Nexus appear.

What gives

In Preferences -> Behavior -> Edge Bump Settings dialog there are options to set how fast Nexus reacts to a screen edge bump. Try tweaking them a bit - what works best for you might be totally wrong for someone else, and vice-versa.



Perhaps this has something to do with Nexus confusing screen 1 and 2?

Years later and still no chance to simply make Nexus appear reliably when hitting the screen border. About every third time, it takes me two times to hit the screen border to make Nexus appear. Sometimes I first have to click on the desktop and then hit the border a third time until the dock slides out...

I'm sorry having to say that, but also the respective settings seem to be a total mess. The screen edge bump settings seem to be cast all over the place and some settings seem to be there two or three times at different places, especially the bump delay that has like four (!) different sliders that are not even synchronized, at totally different places in the settings.








Sorry but it is all but impossible to cut through this inscrutable maze of edge bump settings.

Cheers
David.P

David, all these years complaining about the free version of Nexus and yet... here you are, still using it. Nexus must be doing *something* right for that to happen.

Couple of questions for you:

1. Are you still using the same computer you were two years ago?

2. If yes, have you already tried Nexus on different computers? Do you also have this issue on other computers?

3. Have you already tried setting the 'Delay to activate and show the dock...' to 0 ms, as I recommended two years ago?



David, if there is something I've learned is that a) you can't please everyone and b) everything is a trade-off.

You are obviously the type of user who would prefer a much simpler dock, particularly in terms of its configuration abilities.

Yet, even though there are indeed other easier-to-use docks out there, you seem to have stayed with Nexus despite all the problems you have been experiencing with it. This can only mean that there are things about it that you like that make it worth putting up with those issues.

If Nexus had been designed to be a simple dock from the ground up, those specific things/features you particularly like about it might probably not even exist.

We are also all different, so for any feature you love in Nexus, someone else might hate it, and vice-versa. Because of this, Nexus has lots of settings to make it extremely customizable, so each user can configure it to his own needs and likes.

This is a good thing, because if user A does not like auto-hide docks, he can turn that feature off, if user B likes always-on-top docks he can turn that feature on while C can turn it off if he hates it - and so on...

However, as I said above, everything has a trade-off.

Too much choice can also be confusing, especially if the user does not understand what some of those settings do (that is why the more complex and powerful a program is, the steeper the learning curve - just take a look at Adobe Photoshop, for instance).

Also, when an application has lots of different settings, organizing them on the UI (User Interface) becomes a nightmare for the developer. Ideally you bury the least used options into secondary dialogs, but then you have another problem, which is users not being able to find what they are looking for.

Here is an example: the 'Delay to activate and show the dock when the mouse pointer bumps a screen edge or corner' slider is a setting related to Edge Bumps, so logically it should be in the Edge Bump Settings dialog with all the other Edge Bump settings. HOWEVER, this same setting is ALSO a fundamental setting in activating docks hidden into the screen edge, so most users would expect it to be in the Activation Settings dialog.

See the problem? Logically *all* edge bump settings should be grouped together in a single configuration dialog, but most users will expect the fundamental Activation Delay to be in the Activation Settings dialog. This is why some settings are repeated throughout the UI: to help users find them.

But, of course, some other users (like you) will then complain that the same setting exists in two different places.

I keep tweaking the UI to make it better and more logical, but it's just impossible to please everyone.

Anyway, even though, after all these years, you are still using the *free* version (you must know this stings a little as this is what I do for a living) and your opinion, as expressed here, seems to be mostly negative (which also stings a little) it's also obvious you care about the product on some level. Otherwise you wouldn't have gone to the trouble of making this post with the included pictures.

So I will try to address your concerns:



The highlighted options have to do with z-order (position of the dock in relation to other windows, above or behind), NOT with showing a hidden dock. That is why they are there next to the other z-order options.

'Bring dock forward' means bring the dock to the foreground/top of the z-order, i.e.; above all other windows.

'Bring dock forward when the mouse pointer bumps screen edge' is to be used when the dock is NOT hidden but rather currently below other windows.

With that option disabled, bumping a screen edge would do nothing since the dock is already activated, just not visible because it is behind one or more windows. With that option enabled, however, the dock will be brought to the foreground (above other windows) when you bump the screen edge.

The 'bring dock forward on mouse over' option allows you to bring a dock partially covered by other windows into the foreground by mousing over a visible part of it, but without having to actually click on it.

Why not just click on the visible part of it? Because this method has two advantages: first, you don't risk accidentally launching an application because you clicked a dock icon instead of the dock edge, second, and more importantly, if you then mouse away from the dock without clicking on it, the dock automatically goes back behind the current foreground window.

This allows you to quickly see something on the dock (for instance, the information displayed on time or weather modules) without having to click the dock, then click the previous foreground window to get back to what you were doing. Doing it this way saves you two clicks and the hassle of having to find a dock edge to safely click on.

This feature also allows you to specify how long you should keep the mouse pointer above the dock before it automatically comes to the foreground (so this feature doesn't become a nuisance to you instead of a nice addition).

This 'pop up delay' setting has absolutely nothing to do with edge bumps or edge activation.




You do have a point here, I will probably remove those two buttons from the General tab in the next release of the free version of Nexus.

There is a reason for this, though, but you would need to be running Winstep Xtreme or Nexus Ultimate to fully understand. You can have more than one dock under those applications, and if some settings are specific to a particular dock, others (such as those Edge Bump and Edge Swipe settings) are global, i.e.; they apply to all docks.

As such that single Preferences screen in the free version of Nexus is split into a Preferences panel for global settings (which includes the General tab) with each dock also having its own separate Dock Properties panel, holding settings specific to that dock (there you would find the Position, Behavior, etc... tabs).

For convenience sake, some of the global settings are also accessible from the Dock Properties panels. This makes it easier to find them and also allows you to change related settings (even if they are global) from the Dock Properties panels without having to open the main (global) Preferences panel.

But in this case you are right, in the free version of Nexus it doesn't make sense also having those buttons in the General tab of Preferences.




A major drawback of bumping a screen edge to activate a dock (and also a very common complain) is that it is REALLY EASY to accidentally activate a dock when you are working near the titlebar of a window.

You throw the mouse out of the way, or you move it up to a maximized window's close button and overshoot a bit, the pointer hits the edge of the screen, and, BANG, the dock pops up! To add insult to the injury, it is now covering the area you intended to work on.

This can be pretty intrusive and annoying. Probably the most common complain regarding docks.

One way to solve/help alleviate this is by increasing the 'Delay to activate the dock when the mouse pointer bumps a screen edge or corner'. But then the dock takes forever to react to an edge bump when you actually intend for it to appear.

So, a user had the idea to use an *alternative* edge *swipe* activation method instead of an edge *bump*, and I liked the idea so much I ended up implementing it.

With an edge swipe, you have to intentionally move the mouse pointer a certain distance ACROSS the screen edge to activate the dock. This way the dock does not activate you merely bump the screen edge accidentally.

Since not all users would prefer this method (and since they are all used to the edge bump method) this is an OPTIONAL activation method which must be explicitly selected.

You can make the dock activate with an edge *swipe* instead of an edge bump by selecting the 'Activate with screen edge swipe instead of edge bump' option in the Activation section of the Behavior tab of Nexus Preferences. This setting is exactly where it belongs.

Because an Edge Swipe requires different settings from an Edge Bump to fine tune to your liking, it has its own 'Edge Swipe Settings' dialog.



This is an example of repeating settings in the UI to help users find them. Even though the settings highlighted at the bottom of the dialog are, as you now know, related to the z-order of the dock (and thus belong in the Position tab), they are also related to activating the dock (and thus also belong in the Activation Settings dialog).


EDIT: For next release I changed the Behavior tab so that the 'Edge Swipe Settings' and the 'Edge Bump Settings' buttons are now merged into one. Now when if you select the 'Activate with screen edge swipe instead of edge bump' option the button text changes to 'Edge Swipe Settings', if you unselect it, it changes back to 'Edge Bump Settings'. Which settings dialog is displayed when you click on the button is thus dependent on the Swipe option being currently selected or not.

I also removed the 'Edge Bump Settings' and 'Edge Swipe Settings' buttons from the General tab on the free version of Nexus.

I just noticed something else. See that 'Hot key' field in the dialog above?

That is intended as either an *alternate* activation method (could also be based on a key combination instead of edge/corner bump) OR as a way to activate the dock if it currently floating (not attached/docked to a screen edge). In the latter case it expands the dock if currently collapsed into the dock control icon and also brings it to the foreground.

In this case, since you seem to have the dock attached to the Right Screen Edge, it enables you to activate it by either bumping the right screen edge (normal edge bump activation) or bumping the left screen edge (hotkey activation).

Whoa Jorge, that is one incredible amount of information. Thanks!

First of all, let me say that I like Nexus very much, which is why it made me angry at times that I just did not manage to configure it correctly (or something), over years and years.

A long time ago, I tested all sorts of Dock software, but they were either not working properly or abandoned (or both). Nexus seemed to be the only Dock that was actively developed and had all features I wanted.

Regarding the edge bump settings: thank you for your wealth of explanations, this makes things somewhat clearer now. Still I find it very confusing if the same settings turn up in different areas of the settings dialog. I have never seen something like this anywhere else, and I find it so confusing because even after years of using Nexus, I could never figure out which settings are true duplicates and which maybe are not. What's more, I could for the life of me never remember where to look for all of the edge bump settings such that I always ended up looking in ALL tabs for edge bump settings, which was exhausting.

In my view, these settings ALL belong together in the tab "behaviour", and none of them in the tabs "General" or "Position".

Anyway, now that you made clear that 'bring dock forward on mouse over' is different from the edge bump behaviour: would it be possible to have the dock always visible on the desktop (i.e. behind all windows), and only make it appear above other windows when the edge is bumped (or swiped)?

What combination of bump, swipe and forward settings would I have to use for this?

Cheers
David

OK so I now have disabled bump and enabled swipe. What happens now is that sometimes (not always) I first have to click on the desktop before the swipe is registered at all such that Nexus appears. If I want to make Nexus appear again instantly after it has hidden, I first have to click the desktop again.

Again, what I'd need is simply this Nexus behavior:

1. on the desktop, stay always visible such that it does not take unneeded bump/swipe/hover action to use the dock.
   
2. with other windows active/in the foreground: stay in background (but do not slide out or hide) and come to foreground when bumping (better: swiping) the screen border.

That's all I have been trying to achieve but could not for like six years or so

Apologies, was busy with the new beta ended up forgetting to reply to you.

What you want is simple. In fact, that is how I have my dock set-up too.

So, from the settings you highlighted above:

Position tab:

Keep the dock always above other windows: Set to 'Same as other windows'.
Bring dock forward when the mouse pointer bumps screen edge: ON
Bring dock forward on mouse over: OFF (can also be on, up to you)

Behavior tab:

Auto-hide the dock after a short delay: OFF

Activate with screen edge swipe instead of edge bump: ON (or OFF, up to you)
Activation acts as a toggle (shows if hidden, hides if visible): OFF

Activation Settings dialog in Behavior tab:

Hotkey: Set to 'None'

The above ought to do what you want.

The 'Bring dock forward when the mouse pointer bumps screen edge' setting actually works for edge swipes too, so the dock is brought to the foreground when you swipe the screen edge if that is what you have set as the dock's activation method (but nothing will happen if you BUMP the screen edge).

That setting needs to be rephrased.

Phew -- thanks!

I'll report back if everything works now.

Cheers
David

That shouldn't happen, by the way. But: Nexus will deliberately ignore edge bumps and hot-keys if it thinks a full screen application (such as a game) is currently running.

This is like this so you don't accidentally exit from a game into the Windows desktop because you accidentally bumped a screen edge or pressed a key combination that is also associated with a Nexus hot-key.

Note that a full screen application and a maximized window are two very different beasts. Determining what is a maximized window and what is a full screen application is also not as straightforward as it might sound: for instance, a Chrome maximized window bends the rules in such a way that an exception had to be created for it in the code because, to Nexus, a maximized Chrome window appeared the same as a full screen application (which prevented the dock from activating if you were running Chrome maximized).

Perhaps something similar is happening there, but only you can determine that. When you click on the desktop, whatever window was previously the foreground window ceases to be the foreground window (and Nexus looks at the current foreground window to determine if it is a full screen application or not).