First public beta of the Winstep Nexus dock released!

Nexus is a FREE stand-alone version of the Nexus dock that is part of Winstep Xtreme

from WinCustomize Forums
Introducing the Winstep Nexus Dock

The Winstep Nexus dock is a FREE, stand alone, version of the Nexus dock that is part of the Winstep Xtreme suite of applications, although it has no support for multi-docks and multi-level sub-docks, unlike its bigger 'cousin' in Winstep Xtreme.

This first public beta release features a new User Interface with multi-language support that will also become part of Winstep Xtreme later this month. Because of this, and ONLY until then, if you click on the Winstep Xtreme link in the About tab of Nexus Preferences you get a nice 50% off promotion.

So, if you want to put your hands on Winstep Xtreme for only $19.95 (and still get the same cool Nexus-style UI before the end of the month), now is your chance!

Live Icon Reflections:

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Automatic Glass Blur effect for semi-transparent dock backgrounds (Vista/Win7):

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Modern and super intuitive User Interface:

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Watch Nexus in action:

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On YouTube click on the HD button for a 860x480 pixel, high definition, version of this video.


The free version of Nexus is backed up by Winstep Software Technologies, a commercial company. Winstep has been actively involved in the customization business since early 1999 - for you, this basically means that you get real, professional support, detailed documentation, the assurance that it won't mess up your system, and, more important, that the free version of Nexus does not get abandoned like it happens to most freeware projects once the author loses interest and/or gets a real job.

Nexus Features:
  • Live icon reflections.
  • Dock magnification, swing, bounce, afterglow and many other incredible mouse over effects.
  • Water ripple, fluid surface, fluid reflections and many more dock animation effects.
  • Automatic Vista glass blur for semi-transparent dock backgrounds.
  • Dock auto-hide and auto-collapse to take up as little screen space as possible.
  • Built-in clock, weather, recycler, fortune cookie reader, email checker, net, cpu and ram meter docklets/widgets.
  • Over 80 useful internal commands.
  • Ability to prevent maximized windows from overlapping the dock.
  • Supports drag & drop of virtual file system objects (My Computer, Control Panel, etc...).
  • Completely customizable - thousands of backgrounds freely available.
  • Fully compatible with skins for all other docks.
  • Full drag & drop support with extremely easy to use and intuitive interface.
  • Multi language support (supported languages on this beta: English, French, German, Portuguese).
  • Includes Update Manager to look for, download, and automatically install new versions.
  • ... and many, many, other incredible features!

Winstep Website: http://www.winstep.net
Registration: FREE
You can download Nexus from HERE (12.3 MB).
Nexus is fully compatible with Win9x, ME, NT4, 2000, XP 32/64 bit, 2003 Server, Vista 32/64 bit and Windows 7 32/64 bit.

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4,146 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

:sun:

Folks...big, HUGE mistake if you don't pick up Winstep Extreme at half price.

I use it all the time. I love it. Tell ya what - don't buy it. Download the trial version and try it.

But......

Don't forget...Betas and free trials run out....as do half price offers. Don't get caught wishing you had...but didn't. 

That was free medial advice!

the doc

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I'm trying out the Nexus beta on Windows 7 at the moment.  It looks great, but CPU usage is a little high when the dock is not being accessed.  I tried turning off some of the effects, but that didn't help.  Perhaps usage will go down as the code is optimized?  Does anyone have a suggestion about how to reduce the overhead?

Update:  I removed the clock gadget (I had already removed the CPU and RAM gadgets) and that lowered the cpu usage.  Some of the other activity I was seeing turned out to be a system process and not Nexus.  It appears to be working fine.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I tried it on XP 32 bit. Great dock overall. Very nice interface and smooth animations and reflections.

Anyway, i was dissapointed mainly from one thing, the docklets.

I found them to be space consuming (one docklet for ram and one for cpu, one net-in and one net-out.) That takes too much space, hope that can improve.

Anyway, i'm using Sysstats docklets on OD and even made some myself and got used to using them.

It's dissapointing to give up this option that works in Objectdock and Rocketdock...

Sysstats support would convince me to use it, that's sure. It's an amyzing peace of software, just not so customizable.

Another problem i had was with the mail checker, couldn't figure it out... got used to gmail checker (also Sysstats), so easy to setup... no idea even if gmail can work with this built in mail checker!?

Thanks for a great app anyway, i'll surely try it again in the future.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I like it :grin:

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting zigboom, reply 3
I found them to be space consuming (one docklet for ram and one for cpu, one net-in and one net-out.) That takes too much space, hope that can improve.

I'm not very familiar with Sysstats, but each Sysstats docklet seems to use a dock slot as well. And, if you want the information to be readable at all times (even when the dock is not magnifying), then you can't cram too much info into each icon.

This way the docklets are modular, i.e. you only use what you need, and the information is perfectly visible at all times.

Quoting zigboom, reply 3
It's dissapointing to give up this option that works in Objectdock and Rocketdock...

Problem is the different development systems used. Support for OD/RocketDock/etc docklets requires exporting functions in the Nexus executable - something which can't be done nativelly under VB. On the other hand, I've been studying this problem for a while and I believe I can pull it off in a future version.

Quoting zigboom, reply 3
Another problem i had was with the mail checker, couldn't figure it out... got used to gmail checker (also Sysstats), so easy to setup... no idea even if gmail can work with this built in mail checker

Perhaps because the Email Checker in Nexus actually allows you to monitor MULTIPLE email accounts and is therefore a little bit more complex than your regular run-of-the-mill email checker? It even supports the IMAP protocol and SSL encryption (a requirement to monitor Gmail accounts, so, yes, it does work with Gmail).

Anyway, what difficulties did you have in figuring out how it works? To set it up you just click New to add a new account to monitor and then enter your email server settings (the same way you have to do in your email client). The way I see it the only extra step is that you have to click the New button first? Then again, maybe I am missing something, so your feedback would be invaluable in helping me rectify whatever caused you to become confused with it.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The new interface is fantastic!!  It's very easy to set all this up.  Reflections are coooooolll :)

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top


This first public beta release features a new User Interface with multi-language support that will also become part of Winstep Xtreme later this month. Because of this, and ONLY until then, if you click on the Winstep Xtreme link in the About tab of Nexus Preferences you get a nice 50% off promotion.

 

Funny, I searched high and low for this link but every buy/purchase link I find in the suite (namely on the tab with the cash bag) takes me to the page that says it costs $40. Am I missing something or has the offer expired?

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Funny, I searched high and low for this link but every buy/purchase link I find in the suite (namely on the tab with the cash bag) takes me to the page that says it costs $40. Am I missing something or has the offer expired?

http://www.winstep.net/default.asp?cat=nexus#download

right there on that page. 8|

 

 

 

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I

Quoting Brickhead, reply 8

http://www.winstep.net/default.asp?cat=nexus#download

right there on that page.
 

 

Duh! Nevermind. It _does_ appear as a banner if you click in the link from inside the new beta version of Nexus. I was clicking in the about of the 9.5 Xtreme.