Hello, i had: winstep nexus ultimate 14.11, went to advanced > maintenance > backup

saved the backup file

brought the latest version: winstep nexus xtreme 16.3, advanced > maintenance > restore, and it restored nothing...no shortcuts, no settings, whats happening...?

Replied to your message by email via Winstep support.

thanks, replied in email with backup

would be great if you can help me asap, i need my shortcuts back

Sorry, weekend got in the way.

Look, I have some bad news: that backup you sent me is not usable. Not sure how that happened, but is has absolutely no information regarding the Shelf and dock contents, and it's missing bits and pieces left and right.

In fact, it looks as if it was a backup made by the free version of Nexus, not Nexus Ultimate.

If that is all you have, I'm sorry to say that you will have to reset settings to factory defaults (Preferences > Advanced -> Troubleshooting Options -> Reset Everything) and start from scratch again.

However, there is one thing I found pretty odd: you sent that backup file as if it was the original backup file you made while still running v14.11.

Only it isn't.

One of the pieces of information saved is the version number of the application that created the backup file, and it says v16.3, not v14.11 as it should if that was the original v14.11 backup file.

So, you might have sent me the wrong backup file by mistake. If that is so, then there might still be a chance of recovering your information if you send me the correct/original backup file this time, not one you made while already running v16.3.

Another thing to do is make sure you are indeed running Nexus Ultimate (it will say so in the About tab of Preferences) and not the free version of Nexus. You cannot restore a backup made by Nexus Ultimate into the free version of Nexus, it just won't work.

Also, why didn't you just install v16.3 ON TOP of v14.11?

I did actually install
winstep nexus xtreme 16.3
on top of
winstep nexus ultimate 14.11

perhaps the backups are not compatible with different editions?

but instead of an update it seemed to install another version, so there were two programs running side by side

either way i guess ill have to start fresh, but i dont want to start fresh once again knowing that i cannot backup

so how do i actually check my backup to make sure all my shortcuts are there in the backup, with the correct sort order

by the way, props to you for sorting the HIDPI problem, that was the biggest put off i had before, now that you fixed it it made me purchase the program, but yes the backup is very very important to sort

Err, you're going to get me confused too, lol, there is no 'Winstep Nexus Xtreme' (please check this product comparison page HERE for clarification).

There is Nexus (the free version), Nexus Ultimate and Winstep Xtreme.

Anyway, I checked the registrations database and I can see you ordered Winstep Xtreme on the 16th. If you were previously running Nexus Ultimate and didn't follow the instructions to upgrade from Nexus Ultimate that were on the email with your Winstep Xtreme license key, you now have a big mess in there to sort out.



They are, but that is not the problem. The problem is that your backup is invalid because it was not made on Nexus Ultimate v14.11. In fact, it seems to me that the backup you sent me was made while running v16.3 of Nexus (the free version).

I wouldn't be surprised if a this point you have Nexus free, Nexus Ultimate and Winstep Xtreme all installed at the same time.

To try to help you sort it out, I first need to know exactly what you did. Did you uninstall Nexus Ultimate before installing Winstep Xtreme or did you simply install Winstep Xtreme on top of what was already there?



Yeah, I think so too.

Have a look in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Winstep\

See if you have 'nexus.exe' and/or 'nexus-ultimate.exe' in that folder then please let me know. If you do either one (or both), please report back their versions (right click the executable file, select Properties in the context menu that pops up, then click the Details tab).

At this point please do NOTHING else other than this.



There is nothing wrong with the backup process - unless, of course, you try to restore a backup made with the free version of Nexus into Nexus Ultimate or Winstep Xtreme.



How many backup files do you have in the Winstep backup folder?



Thanks!

im just going to ignore the previous installations, i started fresh, uninstalled both versions using revo uninstaller, then installed the latest version registered, so im going to start fresh, which i dont mind

but what i do want to know how to do is to check the backup manually, i see that it can be opened up with word, so its basically just a text file i assume

so will the shortcuts created in the dock simply appear as URL's? in the txt files in the same order?

if so thats great and that will be one thing sorted


hope you can help me with another, i remember using the old version, and when i had a shortcut from say an external drive, the shortcut icon would appear as a ? icon, is there a way to cache the icon into a library automatically? i dont want to manually extract the icon and import it into the library myself

The backup is a custom 'script file' and should not be edited manually - it's not a Word file either (even though it can be open with any text editor), MS Word just happened to later use the same file extension.

Since you are starting over, to test the backup/restore procedure, simply make a small change to the initial factory defaults (add a shortcut or two to the docks/shelf) then backup and restore to see if your changes are still there (they will!).

You will see there are no issues with the backup/restore procedure. I already explained what seems to have happened in your case.



No, there is no way to extract the icon automatically - it's not within the scope of Winstep applications and you can do that with any of the many existing 3rd party icon authoring tools (e.g.; Axialis IconWorkShop, etc...).

Simply assign a custom icon image by right clicking the external drive's shortcut -> Dock Entry Properties -> Change Icon. That way the icon will always be available even if the drive is off-line - and you only have to do that once.