I have Winstep Extreme installed on 3 computers. On ONE, whenever I reboot, my one dock reverts to the default that was the first dock. I have a backup, can restore, fine, but why does it do this, and only on this one computer?

I sent an email to support a couple weeks ago but never heard anything.

Win 10 Professional

Thanks,
Tom

Sorry, don't remember reading anything about this. You did well in posting here.

Now, lets see, settings don't stick?

What happens if you make changes to the dock, *exit* the application manually (instead of rebooting the PC) and then run it again? Do the changes stick this way or does it revert back to defaults?

No, I changed, saved, quit, restarted without a reboot, reverted to original dock. Did it all again, except reboot, same thing. Ironically, on install, I had a dock and a shelf by default. I turned the shelf off, that stays off. Just my dock reverts every time.

Ok, look, first I need to figure out if this is a problem with WorkShelf not being able to save *any* settings into the Windows Registry (which could indicate a problem with the Windows Registry itself) *OR* if the problem is limited to the dock settings.

So please do the following: open WorkShelf Preferences, go to the General tab, check the 'Disable all animations' setting. Don't worry, this is temporary and just an experiment.

Now click Ok to exit Preferences.

Open it again, make sure 'Disable all animations' is still ticked, and click the Exit button to shutdown WorkShelf.

Now launch WorkShelf again by clicking on the Winstep Xtreme icon on your desktop. Once again, open Preferences, go to the General tab.

Is 'Disable all animations' still ticked? If not, you probably have a corrupt Windows Registry. If it is, the problem is something else.

Either way, this is the first step to figure out what might be going on. Please report back your findings.

OK, did exactly as you suggested. Disable animations stuck thru an exit and restart of Workshelf, but my dock did NOT, my dock reverted to the original dock.

Thanks, and let me know what's next!!! This doesn't happen on my other three computers, for what that's worth!!!

Tom

Ok, the plot thickens.

Perhaps the internal dock structure has become corrupt.

Here is what I need you to do now: make a backup of your WorkShelf settings (WorkShelf Preferences -> Advanced -> Backup) and send the resulting file to the Winstep support address so I can have a look at it.

Ah, before doing that, make the first shortcut in the dock be to some distinctive application and let me know what that shortcut should point to, so I can compare what I see in the backup files to what should be there.

Also, one more question: exactly what is reverting back to the defaults? The dock contents, the dock settings, or *both*?

File sent, first icon (from the left) other than Nexus is VLC Media Player.

WRT what's reverting, the dock contents revert, but the settings must revert, too because the dock is on the top (mine is on the bottom) with original background and icons.

I'm not much of an expert at Winstep, I bought it after I got annoyed with Object Desktop and found Winstep!! I just have one dock, on the bottom like a Mac, with a few gimmicks going!! Water ripple, bounce, maybe a couple others.

Rats, no clues there... everything seems normal... but then, that was kind of to be expected, since you had already said you could restore from a backup.

Ok, now lets try something else: restart WorkShelf. The dock will revert back to the default, right? Well, don't change anything, immediately open Preferences, make a backup and send the file over to the same support address.

Wonder what we will find.

Something else: are you sure the backup you sent me was the one you made today?

I'm asking this because I noticed that, even though Check for Updates is turned on, the last logged check for updates was at 16:53:04 on Friday, January 22, 2016. That's almost two weeks ago.

If the file was named test.xxx, yes, it was saved 30 seconds before sending it. Not sure why check for updates shows that date. That MIGHT have been the date I installed it, although I think it was more like a month ago.

I'll look tomorrow and see if I can figure out if it's set to update automatically. Maybe that's the default, or ONLY, way it works, I never looked. I didn't get any update notifications that I remember, on any of my computers.

It is.



It's set to automatically look for updates. One possible explanation is that you're not allowing wsupdate.exe through your firewall.

Anyway, if you're running v15.9 there haven't been any new updates for it yet - but there will be one next week.

To my knowledge I don't have wsupdate blocked by a firewall. i don't run any "fancy" third party software firewalls. I DO run Webroot Anti Virus.

If I go to C:\Program Files (x86) and double click wsupdate.exe, it runs and tells me I'm up to date, so if run manually it sneaks thru any firewalls!!

What's next, the old uninstall/reinstall?

Thanks for the help,

Tom

No, you missed a post above (I made two in quick sucession).

Check it out.

I DID miss it!! File sent...........

Apologies. Been terribly busy with the next release.

Look, to tell you the truth, I am still baffled. No clue yet.

So, we must dig deeper, this time into the Windows Registry itself, where the settings are stored.

Here is what I need you to do:

1. After restoring from your backup as usual, set WorkShelf NOT to run at startup in the General tab of Preferences. Press Ok to exit Preferences and commit this change.

2. Exit WorkShelf.

3. Open the Windows Registry Editor (RegEdit) and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinSTEP2000\WorkSHELF

4. Right click and Export the whole WorkShelf key and it's contents to a file (call it 1.reg).

5. Reboot.

6. Now, BEFORE running WorkShelf repeat the above regarding exporting the WorkShelf Registry key. Call it 2.reg this time. Exit RegEdit.

7. Now run WorkShelf. Things being the usual, your dock will be gone once again. Run RegEdit *while WorkShelf is running* and make 3.reg. Exit RegEdit again.

8. Now exit WorkShelf. Open RegEdit. Make a final file, 4.reg.

Send them all over, please.