If you were asked to update to version 25.7 twice within a short period:

What's New? Highlighted Features:

• Windows 11-Specific Improvements.

Systray Icons Restored: Battery, Net, and Volume icons are now visible again for Windows 11 22H2+, resolving a common frustration for users.




WIN+D Behavior Fixed: Docks and similar elements now remain visible on Windows 11 24H2 when showing the desktop.

• Modernized Visuals and UI Enhancements.

Windows 11 Visual Update: A new “Use Windows 11 icons” toggle (enabled by default on Win10+) refreshes the interface and other app icons with sleek Windows 11-style images, replacing outdated visuals. Over 70 modern icons were added to the Samples folder, reinforcing the aesthetic.




Dark Mode Refinement: menus using the default theme now adopt Windows’ accent color when in dark mode, and a new analog clock module styled for dark mode is automatically selected on first run.

Analog clock module now uses bitmaps for the hour, minute and second hands, including those in the current theme (if available).




Native Windows Peek is now used when mousing over live preview thumbnails.

Balloon tooltips now include app icons, improving clarity and visual association.



• Globalization & Language Updates.

Added support for Double-Byte Character Systems (DBCS): Major improvements for Korean, Japanese, and Chinese versions of Windows — fixing drag-and-drop, cropped text, and gibberish character issues.




UI Language Compatibility Check on startup: Ensures smoother performance in localized environments.

Language dropdown UI refined: Now automatically resizes to accommodate long names and uses consistent English-first naming across the list.

New Turkish language file added and Portuguese language file updated.



• Powerful New Features.

New "Sort By" menu option: Folder-type menus can now be sorted by Name, Type, Date Created, Date Modified, or Size — in ascending or descending order.




Desktop calendar module enhancements: New bitmap support (WsCalLeftArrowM.png and WsCalRightArrowM.png) allows for customized arrow buttons on mouse-over.




New helper utility (DwmHlp64.exe) included to access 64-bit-only system features from within Winstep (such as native Windows Peek).

New “Eject USB Device” internal command added — quickly and safely remove drives from your dock or menu.



• Smarter Weather Experience.




DST-Aware Reporting for US States.

Weather module now DST-aware (US only) and displays local observation time more accurately (with minor caveats due to MSN feed limitations). .



• Additional Usability Enhancements.




Fixes and layout tweaks in several configuration dialogs enhance the overall setup experience.

Default "Snap to" buttons are now configured across dialogs for better accessibility (if snap to setting enabled in Windows).

The Theme tab icons now correctly display theme-specific document icons before showing thumbnails.



• Bug Fixes and Stability Improvements.





Fixed bug that could cause some minimized applications to disappear from the taskbar in update v25.6..

Resolved issue where modules were not restoring correctly when moved out of the NextSTART taskbar.

Cleaner resource management: Minimized memory leaks from poorly implemented shell context menu extensions.

Shell properties windows like the dialog for Drive Properties now show properly in the task list.

Fixed timing issue that could cause the system tray expand window not to pop up.

Fixed several system tray and taskbar issues in NextSTART.


• Many other features plus performance and stability improvements! Please see complete change log below...

WorkShelf v25.7 complete change log:

• Added Turkish language file.
• Updated Portuguese language file.
• Problematic configuration dialogs no longer flash a white background when showing the window in dark mode.
• The Weather module now take into account current DST status for US States.
• Tweaked how Weather Observation Time is reported in local time, may not be always accurate because the MSN feed returns this information in local time instead of UTC.
• Configured default "snap to" buttons in dialogs.
• The right click context menu of a shortcut to the NextSTART hotspot associated to the Start Menu button in the NextSTART taskbar will now also display all the option associated with the right click context menu of the Windows Start Button.
• Added functional Battery, Net and Volume systray icons to Windows 11 22H2 and above.
• Docks, etc, no longer get hidden under Windows 11 24H2 when pressing WIN+D (Show Desktop).
• Added a "Sort By" context menu option to folder type menus. Menus can be sorted by Name, Type, Date Created, Date Modified or Size. Ascending or Descending.
• Added new DwmHlp64.exe helper utility to access some features only accessible to 64 bit applications on 64 bit systems.
• The actual Windows Peek window feature is now used if possible when peeking into windows by mousing over the live preview thumbnails.
• "Network.png" icon is no longer used in the default dock for the Internet browser shortcut.
• Added support for desktop calendar module mouse over arrows (bitmaps WsCalLeftArrowM.png and WsCalRightArrowM.png, both must exist).
• Added new "Eject USB Device" internal command.
• The Dark Mode default menu highlights now use the current Windows accent color.
• Icons in the Themes tab of a shelf, grid-stack or drawer now display the proper Theme Document icon before showing the theme thumbnail.
• Balloon tooltips now also display the icon of the application.
• Added a new "dark mode" analog clock module. It is automatically selected instead of the white version when running the Winstep application for the first time if the Windows UI is in dark mode. Can be selected manually in the Clock module settings dialog by toggling "Dark dial clock"
• Added new "Use Windows 11 icons" setting to the More Options dialog accessible from the General tab of Preferences. This option is enabled by default on Windows 10 and above systems. When enabled it replaces the Windows 7 style images used for most internal commands and certain modules with more modern Windows 11 style icons. The user can always revert back by unchecking the "Use Windows 11 icons" setting.
• Added over 70 new icons to the Icons\Samples folder to support the new Windows 11 style icons and removed some old Tretog icons that were not being used anywhere.
• Horizontal size of the languages drop down combo in the About tab now adjusts itself to the largest language name.
• WorkShelf should now work properly on DBCS versions of Windows (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc...). Previously there could be drag and drop issues, text cropping issues, gibberish file descriptions, and other issues even if the system locale matched the Windows language.
• Language drop down in the About tab of Preferences is now wide enough to accommodate the largest language description.
• All languages in the language drop down list are now referred by their English name first.
• Iconic analog clock modules will now also use the current theme's hour, minute and second pointer bitmaps if available.
• Added a check for UI language and system locale compatibility at application startup.
• WorkShelf desktop modules captured into the NextSTART taskbar and then released were not going back to the previous "advanced skinning" shape.
• Restoring the position of desktop modules after changing a theme is now also backwards compatible with previous monitor profiles.
• Some shell properties windows (such as the properties windows for drives) were not being displayed in the list of running tasks.
• In some systems the original v25.6 update was causing some applications to disappear from the taskbar when minimized.
• The Item Properties dialog for the dock control icon now displays the icon using the correct color.
• Fixed timing issue that could cause the system tray expand window not to pop up.
• It was possible for a delete confirmation dialog to pop up outside the current monitor in a multi-monitor system when dropping a shortcut to a recycler in the dock if the dock was spanning the full monitor width.
• Fixed several issues under DBCS versions of Windows (Korean, Japanese, etc) that could prevent drag & drop from working properly, among other things, even if the system locale matched the Windows language.
• Fixed an issue where "LCID" could appear right after the native name of the language.
• Minimized leaks of badly written shell context menu extensions.
• Dropping actual files into the Winstep Recycle bin was not displaying a confirmation dialog even if the 'Display confirmation dialog' setting was enable.
• "Run as Administrator" and "Allow Multiple Instances" settings in the Item Properties dialog could appear cropped in high DPI displays.
• Image files with commas in the filenames would be displayed as a question mark icon.
• "Settings" tab in the shelf was not being automatically translated when changing language in the UI.
• Menu opening and closing is now rock solid, no more problems of a new menu opening while the previous one was still in the middle of the open animation, etc...

NextSTART v25.7 complete change log:

• Added Turkish language file.
• Updated Portuguese language file.
• Configuration dialogs no longer flash a white background when showing the window in dark mode.
• The Menu Editor now displays a hour glass cursor until the dialog fully loads.
• Added functional Battery, Net and Volume systray icons to Windows 11 22H2 and above.
• Taskbar and hotspot buttons no longer get hidden under Windows 11 24H2 when pressing WIN+D (Show Desktop).
• Added a "Sort By" context menu option to folder type menus. Menus can be sorted by Name, Type, Date Created, Date Modified or Size. Ascending or Descending.
• Added new DwmHlp64.exe helper utility to access some features only accessible to 64 bit applications on 64 bit systems.
• The actual Windows Peek window feature is now used if possible when peeking into windows by mousing over the live preview thumbnails.
• Added new "Eject USB Device" internal command.
• Added new "Use Windows 11 icons" setting to the More Options dialog accessible from the General tab of Preferences. This option is enabled by default on Windows 10 and above systems. When enabled it replaces the Windows 7 style images used for most internal commands and certain modules with more modern Windows 11 style icons. The user can always revert back by unchecking the "Use Windows 11 icons" setting.
• Added over 70 new icons to the Icons\Samples folder to support the new Windows 11 style icons and removed some old Tretog icons that were not being used anywhere.
• Horizontal size of the languages drop down combo in the About tab now adjusts itself to the largest language name.
• NextSTART should now work properly on DBCS versions of Windows (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc...). Previously there could be drag and drop issues, text cropping issues, gibberish file descriptions, and other issues even if the system locale matched the Windows language.
• Language drop down in the About tab of Preferences is now wide enough to accommodate the largest language description.
• All languages in the language drop down list are now referred by their English name first.
• WorkShelf desktop modules captured into the NextSTART taskbar and then released were not going back to the previous "advanced skinning" shape.
• The Taskbar was not properly showing a multi-row systray.
• It was no longer possible to resize a vertical taskbar.
• Some shell properties windows (such as the properties windows for drives) were not being displayed in the tasklist.
• In some systems the original v25.6 update was causing some applications to disappear from the taskbar when minimized.
• System tray icons were not being properly refreshed whenever an icon changed.
• Right click menu on the systray clock button always opened the menu instead of toggling it.
• Fixed timing issue that could cause the system tray expand window not to pop up.
• "Windows Settings" entry in the default NextSTART menu was not opening Windows Settings.
• Fixed several issues under DBCS versions of Windows (Korean, Japanese, etc) that could prevent drag & drop from working properly, among other things, even if the system locale matched the Windows language.
• Fixed an issue where "LCID" could appear right after the native name of the language.
• Minimized leaks of badly written shell context menu extensions.
• Image files with commas in the filenames would be displayed as a question mark icon.
• Menu opening and closing is now rock solid, no more problems of a new menu opening while the previous one was still in the middle of the open animation, etc...