New betas of v25.12 are out:

Winstep Xtreme beta:
https://www.winstep.net/xtreme-beta.zip

Nexus Ultimate beta:
https://www.winstep.net/ultimate-beta.zip


This is a beta and MUST be installed ON TOP of a full v25.9 OR LATER installation. Do NOT uninstall anything first, just exit all running Winstep applications and run the beta setup file.

There is no need to backup your settings first, but it does not hurt if you do either.

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Ok, so this one features the destkop version of the new disk meter module.

BassdudeNZ, I know you want it, but you will have to wait a little bit more before being able to skin the desktop version of the new module. Still working on the settings that will be exposed.

If you are curious about the new Show Disk Meter Status in the Troubleshooting Options dialog, the first date/time shows when an attempt to get SMART data was made, the second the time it succeeded (if it did get data) and at the end you have a diag code.

I think the multiple posts I left here already describe what you can do with the module, so have fun playing with it and let me know if you run into any issues please.

Colorization of the desktop module is via the colorization options in the Modules tab of Preferences (click the down arrow below the desktop module preview). Since the light and dark versions of the module are basically grayscale, most colorization options will work well with it (there is a lot of work behind ensuring that is so, too).

I also added the old baby blue ring charts to the \Winstep\Icons\Samples\ folder. You can use those to test or play with the "Change Icon" feature, for instance.

Ah, also, the desktop module can already be attached to the NextSTART taskbar.

This thing has been optimized to hell... for instance, rather than updating the whole desktop module every refresh (which would normally be once per second - or 10 times per second if led activity is enabled), the module is only refreshed if there have been changes, and then only the sections holding the drives that actually need updating (and if we are only dealing with a change in the activity led, only the icon area is updated).

Likewise for a ton of functions under the hood, so please let me know how this handles in terms of performance.

Right now WorkShelf is using less than 0.3% of CPU here, and most of the time doesn't even appear in my CPU meter - and I am showing all 10 of my drives plus all the other modules, etc. This proves performance is more than ok, but from time to time WorkShelf will start using 1.4% or more of CPU for no apparent or valid reason and will stay that way for a prolonged amount of time - still haven't been able to figure out why other than a suspicion that this happens because the WorkShelf process is handed over to an Efficient core in my 12900K rather than remaining in a Performance core.

Jorge, perhaps you missed my previous comment? I am patient. As I mentioned earlier, leave until the next update. You have done a lot of work !! That's more than enough. Rome wasn't built in a day as the saying goes...

Thanks for all the hard work Jorge.

The new Disk Meter Module is great. No change in system performance with four drives.

I would love to see someone create an Xtreme Theme to match the module, both dark and light versions. BassdudeNZ or Picco14 are you busy?

I am up for it. I'll wait for the official release though if that is ok with you?
Keep in mind it will be only for Nexus / Ultimate in the interim though which won't be much and not what I think you are looking for at all.
The desktop modules are at least one beta away I think? something like that, maybe two?

This means for skinning that is - For Picco14 or me to do a theme/module in Winstep Xtreme, Jorge will need to send us an *.ini type file and a name for the disk module with some base instructions. He mentioned above that is a little way yet. e.g. The calendar is a *.wsi file. I'll need to know what the extension of the Disk file is and what it contains as in what I can display, or change, or not change, or if I can position it differently, or not, how it lays out, sizing and a pile of other things. I believe this is why it is a little time to come yet

I could very easily turn the background to match the theme below which I recently uploaded, but the other thing is the color settings you see in this with the circular disks do not save when I change themes, so anything we do at this stage would be wasted until color settings per theme can be saved, which may well be something we need to do in the file for the module. We'll also need a file name for the PNG file too e.g. wsDD.png so we know what to save as.




@Jorge, actually the disk meter would be a good thing to exclude from the free version of Nexus in my opinion. It means it is another reason for people to buy it.

No more new modules have been added to the free version of Nexus since Wanda (in fact very little has been added in terms of new features). Battery, Calendar, Moon and now the Disk Meter module are all exclusive to the paid versions.

Ok, this post is more about me trying to organize my thoughts regarding how to skin this new module than anything else.

So, this module has a few distinctive features in relation to all the others: first it grows dynamically (accordingly to the number of drives it is displaying) which means the main bitmap needs stretchable and non stretchable zones defined, plus "padding/offset" values (that support negative numbers) for the start of the sections (this is how I make the default disk meter module).

Second, it is a composite of an external "container" bitmap and multiple internal "section" bitmaps. Each section is exactly the same as the next one, the only thing that changes is its position in relation to the parent container. Thus, any text, icon and graphic coordinates are relative not to the container bitmap but to the section bitmap (and the application itself takes care of converting these relative coordinates to absolute coordinates).

Third, it can be either horizontal or vertical (and because of the text information and histogram graphics, this is not a simple matter of automatically rotating the bitmaps and coordinates 90º clockwise). So, to all effects and purposes, it is as if the vertical version of the module is a different module from the horizontal version, and I think that is how I am going to handle it.

So, I think the solution is to use two different configuration files, one for the horizontal version of the disk meter module, and another for the vertical version. To the skinner, it is basically the same and probably even less confusing that doing both versions in the same configuration file.

The problem is how I integrate this into the application, but I'll figure it out now that I decided how to deal with it (and thanks for listening to my inner monologue, you guys have been a great help in figuring this out )

P.S. And in the end I might go with something completely different lol

Which is exactly what ended up happening lol Rejoice BassDudeNZ, nearly there!

I also optimized the heck of the multimedia timer DLL used to control effect animations to the millisecond... it was kind of my last ditch effort to resolve WorkShelf/Nexus sometimes ramping up to using 1.3% of CPU while idle instead of the normal 0.3%.

As anything related to optimization, it helped a bit since the timer now only fires when strictly necessary, but again this did not solve the problem. WorkShelf still goes up to 1.3% CPU utilization on my system and stays there for a while for no apparent reason. I am still unable to determine why, all I know is that it only happens on Windows 11 and not on previous versions of Windows.

I still have the theory that it might be related to Intel Director and Windows placing the WorkShelf process on a E-Core instead of a P-Core on Intel CPUs, but have not been able to prove that yet either. Pretty frustrating. I don't know what else to optimize (and given the really low CPU usage most of the time, I doubt this has anything to do with optimization or is even related to it).

Damn Microsoft!

First disk meter external theme, based on the default theme but different...

This is obviously just an example theme that I will upload to the Winstep Gallery, designed to teach skinners how to skin the new disk meter module.

New FINAL betas (beta 4) of v25.12 are out:

Winstep Xtreme beta:
https://www.winstep.net/xtreme-beta.zip

Nexus Ultimate beta:
https://www.winstep.net/ultimate-beta.zip


This is a beta and MUST be installed ON TOP of a full v25.9 OR LATER installation. Do NOT uninstall anything first, just exit all running Winstep applications and run the beta setup file.

There is no need to backup your settings first, but it does not hurt if you do either.

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This beta allows skinning of the new Disk Meter desktop module. An iStat theme for the Disk Meter module was just uploaded to the Winstep Gallery to serve as a tutorial/template on how to skin the new disk meter module.

OK a couple of things please.

USER first (not skinner) - Jorge,

1. if the user goes to the trouble of saving a color theme inside the Disk meter which it can and does, just like Workshelf, it REALLY needs to recall when they reload the theme (or switching themes). Defaulting back to your built-in settings when ANY user spends time adjusting hues and colors and then saving them, then on reload it does not recall is extremely annoying.

What it does effectively, is make some, perhaps many if not a majority of users think "Why did I bother saving my settings if I have to click multiple times every time I load a theme just to get my saved settings that never recall????"

2. The ability to show/hide full graphic display - and just disk icon or chart on the module like you can in Nexus.

SKINNER (simple and short)
I have looked all through and experimented one at a time to visually see what each change does. It's going to take a while. I am having issues bringing the full display back since I changed to only icons. I may need to uninstall reinstall the normal version and then the last BETA. It's probably something I did. Please note, I have the updated Notepad that undoes 99 times so even going back to your default is still not producing anticipated results. As I said, it will take a little while.
Before you ask, yes, the environment variables (absolute paths) are correct inside the file and the file is inside the theme I am testing it in with it renamed to match prefix filename.

As a suggestion, many people feel if they see a paragraph of block text that covers two pages, that they run away from it. May I suggest you separate each section in the uploaded module file with a simple space between different sections? - most importantly drives? I have already done it in the one I am working on.
This is why you see on several forums TLDR (Too long didn't read).


It is wonderful you did this and thank you, but the color thing for users, I do not believe you should bypass this lightly.

Hope you had a nice Christmas with the family