Winstep Nexus. Beautiful and functional dock panel with support for changing themes. Docks for Windows and Linux - installing control panels from MacOS

In the tab "Content" when the checkbox is checked in item

1. Show running applications– The dock panel will show icons of currently running applications. When you hover over an icon, a window thumbnail appears next to it (as when you hover over an icon in the panel Windows tasks 7).

2. Show an indicator on the shortcut of active applications– An indicator appears in front of the icon of the running application (the shape and color change in the settings).

3. Show system tray in dock– The Nexus Bar displays system tray icons that are set to Show Icon and Notifications.

4. Group system tray icons– Several system tray icons form groups of four icons in each group. This function is active if step 3 is active (checked).

5. Hide the dock control icon– The Nexus icon does not appear in the dock.
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Modules in Nexus, with the help of widgets displayed in the dock, they provide additional information about the system status, weather, time and date, incoming and outgoing traffic, notifications about mail messages. Let's look at all 8 dock modules:

VANDA– Animated fish (Fortune Cookie). When you hover the cursor, you are prompted to click and try your luck. If there are no problems with English, click, because fish and cookies are predicted exclusively in the mighty Great British.
" src="http://zrivkoren.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/vanda.jpg" alt="" height="143" width="698"> – Total processor load and from which application it comes highest load (in %) on the processor.

BASKET– When you hover the cursor, the number and volume of objects in the basket are shown.

TRAFFIC COUNTER– An interesting module, the widgets of which can be displayed on the panel in two versions – “Incoming traffic” and “Outgoing traffic”. It will be useful for traffic accounting for those users who do not yet have access to unlimited Internet. By looking at the “Traffic counter settings” you can get information about the amount of incoming and outgoing traffic (bytes), about your network card, connection type, view network statistics for several protocols, as well as active TCP and UDP connections, ports and remote IP addresses .
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WATCH– Analog and digital. When you select a digital style, today's date is additionally displayed below the clock. In “Clock Settings” you set the frequency of time synchronization over the Internet, the frequency and type of notification (clock strikes, talking clocks) with speech and strike settings, time format – 12 or 24, color of numbers and hands. You can also set the clock to tick every second (though I'm not sure anyone would want that).

EL. MAIL– Alerts about new email messages configured via POP3 and IMAP protocols (indicating ports, server addresses, username and password). It is possible to link to the mail client installed in the system. The type of notification can also be configured – voice or chime.
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How to set up a dock– Be sure to read the setup tips (it will come in handy!)

Customize tray icons– This feature is only available in paid Nexus versions Ultimate, and when you click on the button, you will be offered to improve it (buy) by adding additional features: create any number of panels, organize your programs using sub-panels, access system folders and drives using tabs, customize system tray icons in the dock .

Below are screenshots of the tabs in which you can select individual settings, i.e., what the quick access panel should look like, where it should be located and how it should behave, in accordance with your ideas about the convenience and comfortable use of the program. Many subtle settings are hidden behind additional buttons, but I hope that figuring them out will not be difficult even for a not very experienced user (the main thing is to be able to read)! In these images, most of the settings are set to “default”, but you can experiment and choose options that suit you personally.

“Settings -> Processes -> Advanced”
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"Basic"

“Settings -> General -> Additional settings»
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“Settings -> Advanced”
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“Settings -> Advanced -> Options Settings -> Functionality-Memory Usage”

If Nexus consumes a lot of resources as a result of applied effects, in the “Options Settings” you need to check all the boxes to increase the performance of the dock and system, and reduce the load on the processor and RAM.
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“Settings -> Advanced -> Debugging capabilities -> Saving settings”

Most PC users, for one reason or another, prefer Windows. Some people simply do not know about the existence of other operating systems, some cannot imagine their life without their beloved STALKER, and some simply cannot get along well with something unusual. The price to pay for such a choice is quite large (even if you do not take into account the cost of MS Windows). I don't want to throw mud at the operating room in any way. Microsoft system, on the contrary, I will try to help users decorate it a little. I just want to first tell you that the OS of the Unix family (for a desktop, look towards Gnu/Linux ;)) provide the user with much greater freedom to customize the system for themselves, their requirements and hardware. Unfortunately, Windows users do not have to pamper themselves with such concepts as freedom of customization, so I would like to help diversify the OS a little, in particular the desktop. Dock panels are becoming very popular, they not only decorate the desktop, but also help free up space on it. Below is an overview of the most popular dock panels for OS Windows.

This panel is available both for free download (with somewhat reduced functionality) and for download for money (at the time of writing the license cost was 19.95 €). The free version can completely replace the standard one windows panel, immediately after installation, the panel contains a start button, a recycle bin, and several widgets, including a desktop screenshot widget. The number and order of panel elements can be easily changed by calling the context menu. Nexus Dock has a fairly flexible settings system + a sea of different icon behavior effects.

Second on our list is the XWindows Dock. Unlike Nexus, XWindows is completely free. Only the most basic items are displayed in the settings. And the panel itself is created more to maintain cleanliness on the desktop than to decorate it. The disadvantages include the lack of Russian menu language. But nevertheless, with its light weight (the installer takes up about 3 MB), the XWindows Dock panel has the right to life; with its help you can easily create a semblance of a panel on MacOS.

The Rocket Dock panel is very similar in functionality to the Nexus. And if the latter is more suitable for users of Windows 7 or Windows 8, then Rocket is aimed at older versions of NT systems (2000, XP, Vista). The settings menu is made more clear than in Nexus, and in terms of the speed of animation effects, this panel is superior to the first two.

Our rating is completed by the commercial Object Dock panel. You can buy a license for it for $9.99; in addition, a trial version is available for download on the official website. The panel itself, like the Nexus Dock, is designed for newer versions of Windows, but if Nexus can be easily installed on the same XP, the Object panel refuses to install on this system, citing the fact that you still need to install seven.

In general, all panels are similar in their functionality, so which one you should give preference to, you need to decide after looking at them all. In turn, I hope this article helped point you in the right direction.

Wikipedia defines a dock as a user interface feature of a number of operating systems that typically provides a user with a way of launching and switching between applications.

The Winstep Nexus Dock is a FREE* professional dock for Windows. With Nexus, your most frequently used applications are only a mouse click away - and Nexus turns working with your computer into a fun and exciting experience.

Nexus Ultimate is an enhanced version of the free-to-use Nexus dock which is available stand-alone or as a component of Winstep Xtreme (a single easy-to-install package featuring all of Winstep"s popular desktop enhancement products for Windows) .

*Nexus is free for personal use only. For business use, please

System Requirements

Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8.x/10
32 and 64 bit.
500 MHz processor.
256 MB of RAM.
60 MB of free hard disk space.
Screen resolution 800x600 or higher.

Supported Languages

Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Farsi (Persian), Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brasil), Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish.

Would you like to receive a FREE Winstep Nexus Ultimate license key and have your name credited? You can by translating Nexus into a language not listed above! Please click for more information.

FAQs

Nexus Ultimate
Product Comparison

Screenshots

View more screenshots

Winstep Nexus Ultimate

Available from $17.95

Not enough? Nexus Ultimate gives you multiple docks, sub-docks, a Shelf (tabbed dock), and much more!
Buy Now

Features	Free	Ultimate
Display running applications on the dock with task grouping, task filtering and icon customization options.
Display system tray on the dock as single or grouped icons.
Blur-Behind (7/Vista) and colorization of dock backgrounds.
Built-in modules/widgets: (e.g. time announcing clock, recycle bin, email checker, weather monitor, CPU, Net and RAM Meters and Wanda the swimming "fortune cookie" fish).
Over 80 special commands such as Sleep, Empty Recycler, CD Control, etc...
Multiple animated mouse over, launch, attention and delete effects: zoom, swing, bounce and many more!
Live icon reflections and animated water-like effects.
Built in support for animated icons.
Quickly change icons of shortcuts and running programs by dropping PNG and ICO image files directly into the icon.
Minimize windows to the dock.
Multi-monitor support.
High-DPI support.
Compatible with skins for all 3rd party docks.
Multiple docks.
Ability to group shortcuts into an unlimited number of nested sub-docks.
Instant access to the contents of Folders, Downloads, and more via Grid Stacks.
Categorize applications into user-defined tabs on Shelves (tabbed docks).
Increase productivity by displaying folders, the Desktop, My Computer, Control Panel and other virtual system folders on Shelves.
Reduce clutter by hiding desktop icons and using a Shelf"s Desktop tab instead.
One click theme switching via the special Themes tab on a Shelf.
Display icons plus the contents of disk and virtual system folders on Drawers (single-tabbed dock with text below the icons).
Additional modules/widgets (e.g.; calendar, battery monitor, moon phase).
Additional mouse-over, launch, attention and delete effects.
Unlimited number of clock alarms, scheduled tasks and reminders.
Customize system tray with high resolution icons.

Features In Depth

Multiple docks and sub-docks (Nexus Ultimate)

Create multiple docks for a variety of customized needs, organize applications within collapsible groups, or "sub-docks".

Powerful Dock Manipulation options (Nexus Ultimate)

Create docks from existing Shelf tabs, detach sub-docks, turn docks into sub-docks, duplicate docks, delete docks - all this using simple drag-n-drop and/or context menu options.

Shelves/Tabbed Docks (Nexus Ultimate)

Not only being able to hold shortcuts dragged into it, a Shelf is also capable of displaying the contents of special shell folders such as the Desktop, My Computer, Control Panel, Recent Documents, and so forth... It"s even able to display the contents of folders in your hard drive, which can then be manipulated via drag & drop as usual.

A Shelf makes it possible to have a "clean", uncluttered, desktop with no icons on it whatsoever by having Nexus Ultimate hide the icons on the Desktop - icons that can then be quickly accessed via the Desktop tab. Tabs in a Shelf can also have keyboard shortcuts associated to them to make the Shelf simultaneously come to the foreground and open that particular tab.
You can create as many Shelves as you want with the built-in Dock and Shelves Manager, dock them to the screen edge of any monitor, or even leave them floating on your desktop. You can even add sub-docks and Grid Stacks to Shelves:

Grid Stacks (Nexus Ultimate)

Stacks are a particulary useful new feature that can give you instant access to the contents of Applications, Documents, Downloads, and any other folders placed into a dock, shelf or drawer. There they’ll then sit until you click on them, at which point they’ll spring out in a grid arrangement.

Powered by the same technology behind shelves, you can also use Grid Stacks to display the contents of virtual shell folders such as the Windows Control Panel, the Desktop, Recent Documents and Applications, UWP Apps in Windows 10, etc...

Drawers (Nexus Ultimate)

Basically a single tabbed Shelf, a Drawer is a dock/shelf hybrid, merging some of the best features of docks with some of the best features of shelves.

Search Filter (Nexus Ultimate)

Shelves, Drawers and Grid Stacks are able to display folders containing thousands of files - so sometimes finding what you want is the problem.

All you need to do is start typing, and contents are automatically filtered according to what you just typed. You can press Backspace to delete a character or ESC to clear and dismiss the search filter.

The first (and only) Windows dock to feature live icon reflections. Reflections update in real time if the icons animate or change. Size and transparency of reflections are also user configurable.

Powerful Object-based Drag & Drop

Object based interface offers "drag & drop" capabilities that make it simple to manage your applications, files, printers, etc... Use Drag & Drop to move/copy/re-arrange objects from one location to another, to both inside and outside of docks. Drop documents onto dock application objects and have them automatically loaded. You can quickly change the images used by Nexus items simply by drag & dropping your favorite .ICO, .PNG or .TIF file onto the chosen object.

Special Effects

Eye Candy is king! Lots of optional special effects such as icons zooming, bouncing, glowing, rocking, swinging, squishing, spinning, exploding, etc, shifting to make room for items about to be dropped, bouncing on application launch, visual feedback for specific actions, incredible " fluid" effects that make docks and icons behave like liquid surfaces, sound events for when docks collapse and pop up or sub-docks open, and lots more!

Additional Visual Effects (Nexus Ultimate)

With Nexus Ultimate you get even more amazing mouse-over, launch, attention and delete effects on top of the wide selection already given to you by the free version of the Winstep Nexus dock!

Virtual File System Support

Allows you to drag special Explorer objects, like Control Panel items and the My Computer icon, into docks.

Document Thumbnails

Documents, pictures and video files dragged to a dock show up as thumbnails for easy identification.

Blur Behind

Automatically blurs the background of semi-transparent docks (Vista andWindows 7 only).

Reserve Screen Space

Makes sure maximized windows do not overlap docks attached to screen edges.

Respect Reserved Screen Space

Prevents docked docks from overlapping the Windows taskbar and other screen edge-attached toolbars.

Built in support for animated icons

Nexus features built-in support for animated icons. With no need to install 3rd party docklets and full drag and drop support, animated icons in Winstep applications are as easy to use as any other icons: drop the animated icon PNG strip directly into a dock item and the icon will automatically start animating.

Running Applications

Nexus is a complete taskbar replacement with the ability to display running applications on the dock - with Windows "Superbar" abilities, including Aeropeek, even on Windows XP.

System Tray

Nexus can display the system tray on the dock in one of two modes:

Tray icons can be displayed one-by-one or in grouped mode to take up as little space as possible.

Tray Icon Customization (Nexus Ultimate)

System tray icons are originally small 16x16 icons, and can look very blurry when displayed on the dock at larger sizes. Nexus Ultimate allows you to customize tray icons with high-resolution alternatives to solve this problem, with a set of high-resolution images for system tray icons being included in the application.

Full Windows 10 UWP (Universal) App support

Nexus is the only dock currently capable of handling UWP apps in Windows 10 like normal Win32 applications.

Auto-Hide

Docks attached to screen edges can auto-hide onto the screen edge and pop up on demand.

Auto-Collapse

Floating docks (i.e. docks not attached to a screen edge) can collapse into a single control tile and un-collapse on demand.

Full Multi-Monitor and High DPI support

Docks can be docked to any screen edge or left floating on any monitor.

Modules/Widgets

Nexus features eight useful modules (widgets) such as a talking Digital/Analog Clock that synchronizes your time with time servers on the internet, a Recycler, an Email Checker that supports SSL and multiple email accounts, a Weather Module, CPU, Net and RAM Meters and Wanda, a "fortune cookie" animated fish!

Click for a full description of Winstep's modules/widgets and what they do.

Additional Battery Monitor, Calendar and Moon Phase modules (Nexus Ultimate)

Nexus Ultimate offers you an additional UPS/Battery Monitor, a Calendar and a Moon Phases module, with more modules exclusive to Nexus Ultimate and Winstep Xtreme coming soon!

Internal Commands/Docklets

Internal commands are special commands that you can add to the dock as shortcuts: Hibernate, Power Off Monitor, Empty Recycler, Show Start Menu, Language Bar, CD Control, Lookup IP address and over 80 more! Click for a full list of Winstep's internal commands and what they do.

Clock Alarms and Task Scheduler

Clock module associated alarms allow you to display pop-up reminders, wake you up with music or run programs at specific times, once or periodically. The free version of Nexus supports a single alarm, while Nexus Ultimate supports an unlimited number of alarms.

Keyboard Navigation

Docks can be brought to the foreground and dock items launched through user-specified hotkeys.

Full keyboard support makes Nexus the ideal dock for Home Theater users: Nexus is the first - and only - Windows dock that can be fully controlled with nothing but the keyboard and remote controllers such as the Logitech Harmony.

PNG, ICO and TIF File Support

Supports the use of PNG as well as TIF and ICO files for object images and bitmaps.

Complete Customization

Virtually every aspect of every dock is customizable: from icon size, to magnification size, to dock behavior.

Quality And Performance Tested

Nexus has undergone extensive testing by thousands of dedicated users. This continues testing as part of our ongoing efforts to provide top quality software to our customers.

Highlighted Winstep Themes

Highlighted Nexus Themes

Please note that Nexus is FULLY compatible with skins for ALL 3rd party docks (RocketDock, ObjectDock, RKLauncher, etc...). Besides the hundreds of native Winstep themes, such as the ones below, you also have thousands of non-Winstep dock backgrounds at your disposal. To use a 3rd party dock skin, download it to your hard drive and then Import it in the Themes tab of Nexus Preferences.

Animated Icon Pack

Winstep Xtreme, Nexus and Nexus Ultimate feature built-in support for animated icons from version 11.5 onwards. The following is a pack of eight beautiful animated icons to get you started:

With no need to install 3rd party docklets and full drag and drop support, animated icons in Winstep applications are as easy to use as any other icons: drop the animated icon PNG strip directly into a dock item and the icon will automatically start animating.

Animated Nexus Dock Control Icons

A pack of animated Nexus dock control icons which you can use to replace the static control icons on your Nexus docks.

Extract the animated icons in this pack into a folder in your hard drive, then drag one of the animated icons and drop it into the static Nexus control icon on your dock.

Alternate battery module images (Nexus Ultimate/Winstep Xtreme)

If you like the look above and would like to use it for your battery module, here is what you need to do:

Clicking one of the above links will download, install and apply the specified voice pack. You can always change the Voice pack currently active in the Sound tab of WorkShelf, Nexus or Nexus Ultimate Preferences.

Theme Sites

Community sites

Hungry for more exciting themes? No problem... The sites listed below offer hundreds and hundreds of Winstep themes ripe for the picking!

Nexus dock backgrounds

Nexus is fully compatible with themes for ALL 3rd party docks. Besides the hundreds of native Winstep themes listed above, you have thousands of non-Winstep dock backgrounds at your disposal:

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Many users will agree that the Windows operating system should not only be secure and functional, but also beautiful. Ways to decorate Windows shell there are quite a few. The simplest and most popular of them is the use of gadgets and animated floating panels quick launch. The result is beauty plus functionality. Of the numerous applications that serve to decorate the Windows interface, I would especially like to mention Winstep Nexus. This free program is an animated panel, the so-called launcher - a tool for quick access to user applications and operating system controls.

By default, the Winstep Nexus panel is located at the top of the desktop and contains eight quick launch icons - access to the Start menu, recycle bin and calendar, a weather widget, modules for viewing processor load, memory usage, application selection, as well as a tool for creating full-screen screenshots. Of course, users can remove or add their own icons to the panel, as well as customize appearance panel itself at your discretion. You can use Nexus not only to quickly launch applications, but also to open directories, navigate to URLs, execute internal teams etc. The application is controlled from the notification area or from the context menu called by right-clicking on the panel itself.

Winstep Nexus features a wide range of various settings, support for skins and widgets, as well as a very convenient user interface with support for the Russian language. The Dock Settings window has eleven tabs containing a total of over one hundred different options. So, using the tools of the “Position” tab, you can set the coordinates of the panel on the screen. Switching to the tab "View"

you can adjust the size of the icons, the distance between them, the amount of reflection, background color, font and other parameters. A corresponding tab is also provided to configure the visual effects of icons. By the way, Winstep Nexus uses sound and can also be customized.

But most interesting setting There seems to be a change in design themes. It turns out that the Winstep Nexus panel can take different, completely different forms. The current version has 28 themes, in addition, it is possible to download and install additional skins from the developer’s website. But that's not all. The program can also set wallpaper and give the panel a “tiled” look. Unfortunately, if after changing the wallpaper you want to return the previous desktop picture, you will have to do it manually, and this despite the presence of a reset function to the original settings.

Among other features of this application, I would like to note the control of the dock by mouse movements and pinning it to the desktop, changing the level of transparency, displaying running applications (including portable ones) in the panel, as well as creating backup copies of current settings. You can download this useful program from the developer’s website winstep.net. In addition to the free version, there is also a commercial version of Winstep Nexus, which has an even wider range of features. The application runs under Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 operating systems of both bit levels.

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