Not sure I would agree with this - if you have multiple grid stacks / sub-docks / etc then they already pop out as you move the mouse pointer over them (if open sub-docks on mouseover is enabled). Agreed that (as per your later comment) you can extend the period before activation occurs, but this doesn't help if you actually want to see what is in the grid stack in case it is what you are after.


Sorry have to disagree again - you can select one, or more items and drag them over the grid stack at which point it will open and then you can drag the items into place.


As mentioned above I realise that I can do that but it doesn't achieve what I would want. I just want it to close if I move away from it because it doesn't have what I need.

Anyway its no big deal - if its not do-able, or you don't think its worth providing as an option, then I will just continue to use it as I currently do.

A very tight one at that, no doubt.

Your approach is really comprehensive and well received. I also figure I'd say so in case nobody has.


The unfortunate part with any artificial intelligence is that it certainly understands the exact meaning of words it has been fed, but is still very lacking in interpretation. It's like when you are walking with your child and walking too slowly, then you say, 'shake a leg'. The child looks at you bamboozled or asks why would you want them to do that?

Everything has to be specific with AI to every i and t being dotted and crossed or it will never come close.

I think what you are trying to do is great and yes definitely, I am also one of those who loved the transparent glass of aero above all others, though Vista was a lot more gnarly than its predecessor in some areas.

- as for NEXUS it's great. Do whatever fits best.

I think you're on the right track Jorge, go hard.

P.S. - As a side note, I grew up in the coding period where developers used to compress their code. Children of friends who are avid gamers are forever telling me that they release new things perpetually before fixing the old and the bugs carry through and compound. This seems to be the century of instant gratification.

Preach!

I would, if it would do any good but it won't. The best things in life used to be the ones you had to wait for the longest or worked the hardest to achieve or acquire.

Anyway back to topic, I think the fact you genuinely care about the quality and user-accessibility puts you ahead of many developers. So the idea of a manual is a great idea that details every feature, as is being able to drag 'n drop features where they currently do not, as does improved swiping and other features that take full advantage of Windows newer features.

A new comprehensive theme skinner has been in the pipeline for a while and from my perspective will always be most welcomed.

As for a website that details what you wish to add or change, AI has been there for quite a while with 'auto' websites. While many can and will design it according to your ideas within its own limitations, in many ways, I truly believe you may be best to put pen to paper and draw the old boxes and circles then detail what you want in each before going to the AI. You can at the least, instruct it non-ambiguously to do what you want. It guarantees nothing but I am confident it is a heck of a lot better than giving it one inch to make its own decisions.

Work according to the KISS principle Jorge and you can't go far wrong. Drive mod/s, fine, and perhaps a public 'beta' of the Winstep Theme Repo?

Oops, should have added Free NExus "nagger" - "Buy a healthy meal for my insatiable child/son/boy/toddler"! Definitely should be in next update.

Jorge could choose to tug on the heart strings and have an animation of a crying baby that is hungry saying "Feed me"... Sorry, too hard to resist

Seriously though, with so many downloaded and it is really great, a cup of coffee or $5 is nothing to ask for in any currency. I'd bet most of the people who have it have smartphones and have spent more on phone apps which are the same price. I'd happily pay the $5. I reckon I have got ten times that in usage and probably 100 times that in support. I buy something for the support...old school.

Ooh, I love that idea! Yeah, definitely should have something like that.

There probably are some users of free Nexus who don't have access to any international payments though. So it's likely not always to be a matter of sparing a few quid (or even paying for the app) but just not being able to make payment, alas.

OK, so what is happening after 25.9? Any news? It's awfully quiet in this thread!

Hey! Creativity is like a balloon... it slowly deflates lol Needs time to inflate again.

Anyway, added the 'Treat offset area as an active dock zone' setting and functionality and am now working on adding 'recent files' jumplists to running applications (i.e. a list of files recently opened by that particular application) before tackling more complex stuff.

Ah, the 'Show Container' context menu option for files, etc, now also automatically shows the target file selected in the Explorer folder that pops up.

No no no - wrong metaphor, that's "virginity is like a balloon, one prick and it's gone!"

That's quite a bit of stuff already done then! Call that a break?

Anyway, with "quiet in here" I particularly meant also not one ar*e posting anything! Apathy, oh apathy, wherefore art though apathy!

Any decision yet re: a free Nexus 'nagger'? I think the last suggestion really has it!

Oh and by the way, I keep forgetting, still have no live previews with 25.9, despite the right setting. On both laptops. Queer business really.


[Edit] NB - sorry, didn't see yours earlier. [/Edit]

Nearly done. This is not as simple as it sounds, or as I thought it would be.

The way jumplists work in Windows is through special "container" files stored in the user's hard drive. The filename of each file is a special "hash" of the exe name or app id of the associated application (e.g. 1b4dd67f29cb1962.automaticDestinations-ms).

Even though the structure of the info embedded in those files is known, the algorithm used by MS to come up with the hash that forms part of the filename is deliberately obscured. Therefore you cannot say that '1b4dd67f29cb1962' is the hash of application <x>, at least not without first doing some "digging".

So, jumplists will have references to all the most recent files for a particular application (which is what you want), including information on when they were accessed etc, the problem is that you do not know which jumplist file belongs to which application (and there may be hundreds of jumplist files, some 3 MB in size).

Windows also has a "Recent Items" folder that holds a shortcut list of files and documents that the user has opened recently.

So my alternate plan was to retrieve a list of known file associations (e.g. txt, png, doc, etc) from the Windows Registry, figure out (also using the Registry and /or the API) which applications are associated to which file types, and then use this information to filter out the shortcuts in the Recent Files folder (e.g. if Winword.exe is associated with .doc files, then to create a "jumplist" for Winword I would scan the Recent Files folder and add to the jumplist menu only those files that have a .doc extension - or any other extension associated to Winword.exe).

Problem is, I remembered that in older versions of Windows the Recent Items folder had hundreds of shortcuts some going back a long way in time (ideal for this type of thing), but when I checked in Windows 11 I found out that this folder now only holds about 50 items max.

Microsoft began limiting the number of shortcuts shown in the Recent Items folder starting with Windows 10, reducing it to around 20 by default. This change continued in Windows 11.

Since this folder holds shortcuts to recent files for ALL applications, if you open a bunch of image or video files in quick succession this would "bump out" recent files for other applications.

So, for my idea to work I had to come up with some kind of "hybrid" system as plan B was obviously no longer an option.

The critical and most difficult part is finding out which jumplist belongs to which application. So, after getting a list of known file types and which applications are associated to them, I scan and parse each of the jumplist files to retrieve a list of file extensions of the recent files embedded in them (which, of course, takes a relatively long time to complete for all the jumplist files, but I only need to do this once)

Through a system of best score and number of hits (has to be like this because more than one jumpfile might contain references to, say, .jpg files, and that does not mean the application associated to that jumpfile is the one used to open JPG files by default) I try to figure out which jumpfile is most likely to be associated to which application.

Mind you, this is not fool proof, but it works for most cases.

Then, with this information already available, I can from then on quickly open and parse the appropriate jumplist file to create a jumplist menu of recent files for that particular application. And if I was not able to determine what jumplist file is associated to a particular application, I can always use Plan B as a last resort.

It's not perfect, but my guess is that it will work most of the time.

Something else I have been thinking about: you know the issue with WorkShelf sometimes using more CPU than it normally would for extended periods of time and that I was never able to track down despite extensive analysis, optimizing code, etc?

It only happens under Windows 11.

Something else unique to Windows 11 is its support for the Performance and Efficient cores of Intel CPUs since the 12900K.

Needless to say, Efficient cores are much slower than Performance cores.

What if the REAL reason the Winstep application *appears* to be using more CPU than normal is because Windows sometimes classifies it as a background process and has the Winstep process running on an Efficient core instead of a Performance core?!

Just food for thought.

Phew, that sounds like a heck of a lot of effort - with possibly uncertain results - for relatively little gain Jorge. Mind you, it speaks volumes about your genius for figuring out all these twists and roundabouts, as it were.