Nexus FAQ
- Here you will find a list of common questions associated with the Winstep Nexus Dock.
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Pre-Installation:
Q) Does Nexus contain Spyware or Adware?
A) Nexus does NOT contain any Spyware or Adware of any kind.
Q) Will Nexus slow down my system?
A) Nexus is very light on resources, so any performance hit is usually negligible. You can run Nexus without any problems on Pentium II machines at 150 MHz or even less. Note, however, that the amount of processing power used will depend mainly on the effects you have enabled and on the complexity of the theme you are using. A theme that uses a lot of animations will obviously be more processor intensive than one that has none.
Q) Does Nexus use a lot of memory?
A) No. Actual memory usage is mainly dependent on the current theme and how many objects you have open at the same time, as bitmaps need to be stored in memory. There is also a trade off between memory usage and performance, since some things need to be cached in memory to improve performance. You can, if you want, balance performance vs. memory usage yourself in the Advanced tab of Nexus Preferences by clicking on the Performance Settings button.
Q) Will Nexus change my Windows system files?
A) No. Nexus runs just like any other normal application and does not change Windows system files in any way, shape or form. It's perfectly safe to run, and easy to operate - you won't get in trouble if you run it, don't worry.
Q) Is Nexus compatible with the 64 bit versions of Windows and Vista/7?
A) Yes.
Q) Is there a 64 bit version of Nexus?
A) There is no 64 bit version, nor is there any reason that there should be one. Unlike popular belief dictates, the only real advantage 64 bit applications have over 32 bit ones is that the former can use more than 2 GB of RAM. On the other hand, there are a lot of disadvantages: 64 bit versions use way more memory and have trouble living in a world where most applications are still 32 bit.
Q) Is Nexus multi-user compatible?
A) Yes, settings are individual to each user and the installed themes are shared between all users. You can even make Nexus start automatically at log on for some users but not for other users.
Q) Does Nexus work with multiple monitors?
A) Yes, Nexus is fully multi-monitor compatible.
Q) How do I uninstall Nexus?
A) Why would you want to do that? Now seriously, just like you would any other normal application: exit all Winstep applications first and uninstall Nexus from the Add/Remove Programs applet (Programs and Features applet in Windows 7) in the Windows Control Panel.
Themes:
Q) How do I install new themes?
A) There is a tutorial dedicated to this subject here.
Q) Is Nexus compatible with skins made for 3rd party docks?
A) Yes.
Q) How do I apply the wallpaper that is part of all native Winstep themes?
A) Open the Themes tab in Nexus Preferences and change 'Themes' to 'Wallpapers'. You can now preview and apply a wallpaper from the list of available Winstep wallpapers.
Q) Can I lock the theme/icon used in a specific module/widget so it never changes?
A) Yes. Right-click on the module you want to lock and select 'Lock Theme' from the context menu that pops up.
Q) I'm using the Leopard theme and I noticed that when I want to make the dock icons smaller than x pixels, the table starts to bend. Is there a way to fix it so the table doesn't distort?
A) The Leopard theme features a 2D dock background bitmap trying to represent a 3D background. As such, the background will distort when proportions are not correct - try increasing or decreasing the size of the icon reflections. This is an issue with every dock, obviously, as docks are not 3D renderer programs.
Q) I'm using the Leopard theme and there is a large gap between the dock and maximized windows.
A) To maintain the 3D proportion, the Leopard theme background bitmap features a large transparent area which makes it look like there is a large gap between the dock and maximized windows. You won't have this problem if you use another dock background.
General:
Q) What does the Nexus control icon do?
A) Right clicking the control icon gives you quick access to the dock's settings menu, and double clicking it allows you to manually hide the dock. Under Nexus Ultimate, the control icon can also be used to quickly delete a dock, by dragging and dropping it into the Recycle Bin module, or to turn a dock into a sub-dock, by dropping the control icon into another dock or the Shelf.
Q) Can I remove the Nexus control icon from the dock?
A) Yes, just like you would any other icon: right-click on it and select 'Remove from dock'.
Q) Is there a way to backup all of my Nexus settings?
A) Yes. Open the Advanced tab of Nexus Preferences and click on the Backup button.
Q) Is there a way to backup all my Nexus settings automatically?
A) No, you have to do it manually. See above.
Q) I did something wrong, how do I go back to the default Nexus configuration?
A) If you previously used the built-in Backup feature, you can use it to restore your settings to a stable configuration, otherwise you can reset the settings to installation defaults in the 'Troubleshooting Options' dialog available from the Advanced tab of the Preferences screen.
Q) How do I disable the sound effects?
A) Check the 'Disable all sounds' setting in the Sounds tab in Preferences.
Q) I want to use Nexus for task management. Is there a way to hide the Windows taskbar?
A) Yes. Open the General tab of Nexus Preferences and enable the 'Hide Windows Taskbar' setting.
Q) How do I prevent the Windows taskbar from still reserving screen space when hidden?
A) Temporarily show the Windows taskbar and set it to 'Auto-Hide'.
Q) Is there a way to prevent the dock from overlapping the desktop icons?
A) Yes. Enable the setting that prevents maximized windows from overlapping the dock.
Q) How do I move the dock when it's floating on the screen?
A) Press the ALT key and then left click anywhere on the dock and drag. If you don't use the ALT key, you will have to click on an empty space of the dock or you will initiate a drag & drop operation for the clicked icon.
Q) How do I make the dock auto-hide as soon as I mouse away from it?
A) Nexus may only auto-hide once you click on another window, so it remains available for as long as possible, or as soon as you mouse away from it. You can change this behavior by clearing the 'Hide or collapse automatically only when other windows have the focus' setting in the Advanced dialog of the Behavior tab in Nexus Preferences.
Modules:
Q) How do I prevent the clock module from announcing the time every hour?
A) Right click on the clock module and select 'Disable Time Announcement'.
Q) How do I get the Weather module to report weather conditions in my city?
A) The Weather module, by default, displays the weather conditions in New York City, United States, but is able to report weather conditions for over 39,000 cities all over the world. Right click on the Weather module and select 'Weather Module Settings'. In the dialog that pops up, select your country and then the city or location closest to you.
Q) How can I make the Email Checker module work with Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo?
A) You can find most of the settings you need in this page here. Don't forget to enable SSL encryption, which is required by all these email providers. Yahoo mail also requires a paid account.
Q) The Email Checker is displaying the wrong number of messages?
A) The Email Checker is not a full blown email client. The Email Checker simply asks the server how many messages are pending retrieval, and, if there are any, that's what it reports. It also keeps a counter of the number of messages in the server so it will only notify you again when more mail arrives. The notification, however, will tell you the total number of messages still in the server, not the number of messages that arrived between the new and previous notifications.
This counter is reset when the number of messages in the server is less than the value in the counter (which means mail has been retrieved in the mean time) or when you tell the Checker to launch the email client.
The Email Checker has no way of knowing which messages have already been read but left on the server.
Menus:
Q) How do I make context menus open on mouseover instead of having to click on them?
A) Open the General tab of Nexus Preferences and click on the 'More Options' button. In the dialog that pops up, select 'Open sub-menus on mouseover'. You can also specify the delay used before automatically opening a sub-menu.
Q) How do I make shortcuts to folders open in a menu instead of a window?
A) There are two ways to accomplish this: you can either left click the folder shortcut in the dock and hold (i.e.; not let go of the left mouse button) for half a second, which will pop up a menu displaying the folder contents, or you can change the default left click behavior for folder shortcuts by enabling the 'Always open folders as menus' setting in the Behavior tab of Nexus Preferences.
Troubleshooting:
Q) Access Denied error when installing or updating the application.
A) This can be caused by a virus scanner blocking access to the Public Documents folder.
Specifically Bitdefender has an option for protected folders. If Public Documents is in this list, the application will not be able to create files in the Winstep data folder. You'll need to remove Public Documents from the safe files list and possibly unblock the Winstep application.
Bitdefender Safe Files can be found in the Protection Features window.
Q) Under XP some applications don't display properly or create screen artifacts.
A) Nexus uses a feature provided by Windows XP to display thumbnails of actual windows, like Vista and Windows 7 do. However, some applications may not behave properly with this function, resulting in screen artifacts or in the application not displaying properly. With the problem application running, right-click on the application's task icon in the Nexus dock. In the context menu that pops up, select 'Add to Snapshot Exclusion List'. Alternatively you can disable windows thumbnails altogether in the Tasks tab of Nexus Preferences.
Q) WinDVD 7 and Roxyo Player 2.0 do not display video when Nexus is running.
A) This is a problem with the players themselves, not with Nexus. You will have the same problem if you run any application that uses layered windows to obtain per pixel alpha transparency. Windows Media Player, PowerDVD and Ulead Player (and certainly most others) do not have this problem, for instance. To fix the problem in WinDVD and Roxyo, you must disable the video overlay mode in Advanced Options and restart the player.
Q) My PC does not power off or hangs when I select 'Shutdown Windows' from Nexus.
A) Open the General tab in Preferences, click on the 'More Options' button, and enable 'Force Power Off'. If that still doesn't work, you might also try enabling 'Force Shutdown'.
Q) Maximized windows open only half screen.
A) Make sure your Windows DPI settings are set to 100%. If they are not, Windows will 'lie' to applications about the current screen size, which interferes with Nexus's ability to reserve screen space. Alternatively you can disable the setting that prevents maximized windows from overlapping the dock.
Q) Icons display the default (blank page) image.
A) This is a bug with Stardock's IconPackager. Open the Windows Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex and see if the subkey 'IconHandler' exists. If it does, delete it then reboot.
Q) Nexus pops up a red warning box and execution terminates.
A) This is probably caused by your security software interfering with Nexus self-integrity check routines, but it could also be caused by a virus in your system changing the executable in some way. Perform a full system scan just in case. If you are running Comodo, removing Nexus from the sandbox should cure the problem.
Q) Nexus displays the 'Initializing' splash screen and then freezes.
A) This is probably caused by your security software (HP protect tools security suite is known to cause this). Try temporarily disabling your security software to see if this cures the problem. If it does, it's probably time to change to a proper security suite.
FAQs
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Product Comparison
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Tutorials
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Older Versions
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