Winstep

Software Technologies



Winstep News



Nexus Dock v11.2 Released!

March 14, 2011




The Winstep Nexus dock is a FREE, dock for Windows. Every feature you’d expect from a dock, including widgets, mouse-over effects, skins, drag-and-drop, and many others not available in most other docks, such as live icon reflections, in-dock system tray, Vista Blur-behind effects, and much more. Completely customizable, Nexus has thousands of backgrounds freely available online and is fully compatible with skins for all 3rd party docks.



Nexus runs on the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and Windows 7.

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 here for more information.


Nexus v11.2 Changelog:


  • Added Finnish language file.
  • Added Indonesian language file.
  • Updated Polish language file.
  • Updated French language file.
  • Updated Farsi language file.
  • Updated German language file.
  • Updated Croatian language file.
  • Added support for the Y'z Dock format.
  • Non-square icon images and document thumbnails are now displayed with the proper aspect ratio.
  • Added an automatic retry after 30 seconds if Weather.
  • com returns an 'unknown error' when polling weather data.
  • URL files (such as shortcuts to Steam games) now show the correct icons.
  • The 'Delete Item' explosion animation is now smoother and twice as fast.
  • Glass blur for semi-transparent backgrounds on Vista and 7 is now enabled by default.
  • Moved dock's 'Lock Position' Nexus menu setting to the 'Screen Position' sub-menu.
  • Changed UI background color so buttons no longer have ugly white border under Vista/7.
  • Added support for the new NOOA Weather module METAR URL.
  • Besides the already existing right-click option, you can now also customize the image displayed by a system tray expand icon by dropping an .ICO, .PNG or .TIF file into it.
  • Languages in the About tab of Preferences are now sorted in Alphabetical order.
  • Set the Tab order of all dialogs.
  • It's now possible to 'Browse', via the right click context menu, the contents of virtual folders in Internal Commands (e.g.; My Computer).
  • Added support for the new Help system.
  • You can now drag files over taskbar window thumbnails - after half a second the associated window is restored and brought to the foreground.
  • Added support for RocketDock skins with negative margin coordinates.
  • Re-organized the Advanced dialog in the Advanced tab of Preferences.
  • Added a 'Thumbnail File Types' button to the Advanced Settings dialog from where you can set which document, video and image files generate thumbnails.
  • Changed the default clock and recycler module images so they are no longer NeXT based.
  • Improved usability of task window thumbnails in the dock.
  • Added troubleshoot warning that pops up if Comctl32.ocx is not installed correctly.
  • Optimized handling of RocketDock backgrounds with negative coordinates.
  • Theme wallpapers that are not set to tile are now automatically set to stretch.
  • Task grouping is now turned on by default.
  • Edge bump activation when the dock is visible is now turned off by default.
  • Nexus would corrupt memory and crash if it failed to retrieve the configuration settings of a 3rd party dock theme.
  • It was impossible to use system tray popups if the dock popup delay was set to 0 ms.
  • The dock clock label displayed the date with the month and day reversed.
  • A hidden taskbar was being restored with the auto-hide status on.
  • The grouped tasks menu was sometimes displaying the wrong icon for running applications.
  • The 'Exit' button in Preferences was not being translated when switching languages.
  • If the dock was set to 100% transparent with opaque icons and the dock background skin was already semi-transparent, mouse movement over the dock and drag & drop operations could become erratic.
  • Selecting the first monitor in the Monitors right-click menu was not docking a dock to the selected monitor but instead toggled the dock position lock.
  • Application was not being high DPI virtualized on Vista/7 with high DPI (150%) when starting up.
  • Fixed crash when mousing over a module if the current mouse over effect was 'Sonic boom' and the modules icon cache had been disabled in Performance Settings.
  • Customized system tray expand buttons images were not being shown unless the dock was also set to display the currently running applications.
  • Fixed some major issues with high DPI virtualization on 7 and Vista.
  • The Effect 'Settings' button was sometimes enabled when it should not be.
  • Editing a virtual shell folder with the Item Properties dialog would break the ability to browse it's contents via the context menu.
  • Under XP non-square image and document thumbnails displayed white borders.
  • Hotkeys were being activated even if the Shift key combination wasn't an exact match (for instance, CTRL+1 would also activate if the user pressed CTRL+SHIFT+1).
  • When moving a dock from one quadrant of the screen to another, so that the background would flip or mirror, under Vista/7 the 'glass' region wouldn't always update to overlap the new background.
  • Added missing icon to Weather.com's icon set.
  • Fixed some minor issues with the size and position of the 'number of instances' text that overlaps the icons of running applications in groupped mode.
  • Windows preview thumbnails sometimes lost their 'Always on top' status just before Aero Peek, which could cause windows to overlap the thumbnails.
  • Groupped task icons could sometimes not display the number of running instances.
  • Fixed ugly system tray icon.
  • Since beta 1, Nexus was crashing after displaying the uninstall survey.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Nexus to stall for a while after installing a new font if another application was not responding to broadcasted messages.
  • Fixed bug that could cause icons on vertical magnifying docks to appear cropped.

Archived News

Winstep Xtreme v23.11 Released!

December 8, 2023

v23.11 adds per monitor taskbars and tasklists and mitigates Windows 11 22H2 changes and bugs, plus many new features and stability improvements!

Read more

Nexus Dock v23.11 Released!

December 8, 2023

v23.11 adds per monitor tasklists for docks and mitigates Windows 11 22H2 changes and bugs, plus many new features and stability improvements!

Read more

Cyber Monday!

November 27, 2023

Cyber Monday 2023 is here and Winstep Xtreme is 50% off for the next 24 hours. So, will you take the final chance to bag a deal?

Read more

Happy Holidays!

December 20, 2022

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v22.7 Released!

July 27, 2022

v22.7 brings FULL compatibility with Windows 11 plus many new features and stability improvements!

Read more

Nexus Dock v22.7 Released!

July 27, 2022

v22.7 brings FULL compatibility with Windows 11 plus many new features and stability improvements!

Read more

Happy Holidays 2021!

December 22, 2021

Once again and still in difficult times, wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Stay safe!

Read more

Happy Holidays!

December 20, 2020

In this difficult times, wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Stay safe!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v20.10 Released!

October 28, 2020

v20.10 brings many new features and stability improvements, increased compatibility with Windows 10 and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v20.10 Released!

October 28, 2020

v20.10 brings many new features and stability improvements, increased compatibility with Windows 10 and much more!

Read more

Happy Holidays!

December 18, 2019

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Read more

Winstep 20th Annniversary!

February 28, 2019

Winstep is celebrating 20 years in business with a fantastic, time-limited, price reduction all across the board! Enjoy it while it lasts!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v19.2 Released!

February 28, 2019

v19.2 is mainly a maintenance release with a few goodies thrown in such as a matching Windows 10 Light Mode and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v19.2 Released!

February 28, 2019

v19.2 is mostly a maintenance release with a few goodies thrown in such as a matching Windows 10 Light Mode and much more!

Read more

Happy Holidays!

December 17, 2018

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v18.12 Released!

December 17, 2018

Just in time for Christmas, v18.12 is a massive release featuring the new Grid Stacks, Search Filters, multi monitor profiles and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v18.12 Released!

December 17, 2018

Just in time for Christmas, v18.12 is a massive release featuring the new Grid Stacks and Search Filters (Nexus Ultimate), multi monitor profiles and much more!

Read more

Cyber Monday!

November 26, 2018

Cyber Monday 2018 is here and Winstep Xtreme is 50% off for the next 24 hours. So, will you take the final chance to bag a deal?

Read more

Black Friday!

November 23, 2018

Black Friday 2018 is upon us and Nexus Ultimate is 40% off.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v18.10 Released!

October 9, 2018

Icon colorization, center icons in Shelves, Drawer resizing, improved handling of hybrid Win32/UWP apps, menu scaling and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v18.10 Released!

October 9, 2018

Icon colorization, improved handling of hybrid Win32/UWP apps, context menu scaling and much more!

Read more

Price Increase Announcement

October 7, 2018

After nearly 20 years providing the best products at competitive prices, Winstep is increasing the prices of all its applications for the first time - just to make up (barely) for inflation.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v18.8 Released!

August 30, 2018

Major release featuring the new Drawers, support for multiple and vertical Shelves and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v18.8 Released!

August 30, 2018

Major release featuring new colorization options, new Drawers and support for multiple and vertical Shelves (Nexus Ultimate) and much more!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v18.5 Released!

June 1, 2018

Major release featuring the ability to access docks directly from NextSTART, new Delete Effect with 22 different animations, alarm overlays and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v18.5 Released!

June 1, 2018

Major release featuring new Delete Effect with many different animations, enhanced Media Player functionality and playlist handling, alarm overlays and much more!

Read more

Winstep and the EU GDPR

May 25, 2018

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals within the European Union (EU).

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v18.3 Released!

March 31, 2018

Major release with new alarm options, power saving modes and media player internal command, plus many other performance and stability improvements!

Read more

Nexus Dock v18.3 Released!

March 31, 2018

New alarm options, full dock keyboard support, power saving modes and media player internal command, plus many other performance and stability improvements!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v18.1 Released!

January 20, 2018

New optional Dark Mode for the User Interface, new Windows 10 icons, many other performance and stability improvements!

Read more

Nexus Dock v18.1 Released!

January 20, 2018

New optional Dark Mode for the User Interface, new Windows 10 icons, many other performance and stability improvements!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v17.12 Released!

December 28, 2017

A bit late for Christmas but still not too late, v17.2 is here. Many Windows 10 related additions and fixes and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v17.12 Released!

December 28, 2017

A bit late for Christmas but still not too late, v17.2 is here. Many Windows 10 related additions and fixes and much more!

Read more

Happy Holidays!

December 22, 2017

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Read more

Cyber Monday!

November 27, 2017

Cyber Monday 2017 is upon us and Winstep Xtreme is 50% off.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v17.1 Released!

January 27, 2017

New moon module, new sub-dock options, smooth Shelf scrolling and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v17.1 Released!

January 27, 2017

Wallpaper hot-track smooth colorization transitions, new moon module and pop-up calendar (Nexus Ultimate), and much more!

Read more

Happy Holidays!

December 23, 2016

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v16.12 Released!

December 8, 2016

New calendar module, high-quality voice packs in multiple languages, and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v16.12 Released!

December 8, 2016

High-quality voice packs in multiple languages, Email Checker module now displays number of unread messages on the icon itself, and much more!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v16.9 Released!

September 30, 2016

v16.9 is is mostly a maintenance release, fixing some issues in the previous version and restoring the NOOA/METAR Weather feed.

Read more

Nexus Dock v16.9 Released!

September 30, 2016

v16.9 is is mostly a maintenance release, fixing some issues in the previous version and restoring the NOOA/METAR Weather feed..

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v16.6 Released!

June 27, 2016

New Fast Boot option, running Universal Windows Apps in Windows 10 now display the proper icon and can be pinned to docks and the taskbar, and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v16.6 Released!

June 27, 2016

New Fast Boot option, running Universal Windows Apps in Windows 10 now display the proper icon and can be pinned to the dock, and much more!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v16.5 Released!

May 28, 2016

NextSTART taskbar high-DPI support, new colorization options and much more in this new release!

Read more

Nexus Dock v16.5 Released!

May 28, 2016

New colorization options, fixed 3D dock backgrounds distortion at certain icon sizes, and much more!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v16.3 Released!

March 10, 2016

Maintenance release fixing all the issues we know of in v16.2.

Read more

Nexus Dock v16.3 Released!

March 10, 2016

Maintenance release fixing all the issues we know of in v16.2.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v16.2 Released!

February 11, 2016

New battery module, clock alarms, 10 amazing new mouse-over, launch and attention effects and much more in this new release!

Read more

Nexus Dock v16.2 Released!

February 11, 2016

Minimize windows to the dock, new internal commands, performance improvements and much more in this release!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v15.9 Released!

September 29, 2015

High DPI compatibility, Language Bar, Weather module Geo location, better Windows 10 integration and much more in this new release!

Read more

Nexus Dock v15.9 Released!

September 29, 2015

High DPI compatibility, combined dock shortcuts with running applications, Weather module Geo location, better Windows 10 integration and much more in this release!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v15.7 Released!

July 27, 2015

Winstep Xtreme is now 100% compatible with Windows 10 and much more in this new release!

Read more

Nexus Dock v15.7 Released!

July 27, 2015

Nexus is now 100% compatible with Windows 10 and much more in this new release!

Read more

Windows 10 and Winstep applications

June 27, 2015

With Windows 10 just around the corner, many users have been wondering if Winstep applications (Nexus, Nexus Ultimate and Winstep Xtreme) will work correctly with it.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v14.11 Released!

November 7, 2014

Restored weather feed for weather forecast and more in this maintenance release!

Read more

Nexus Dock v14.11 Released!

November 7, 2014

Restored weather feed for weather forecast and more in this maintenance release!

Read more

Take back what is yours!

March 23, 2012

In an effort to force you into using Metro, Microsoft stripped the familiar Start Menu out of Windows 8. In the process it also stripped your ability to chose for yourself what is best for you.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v12.2 Released!

March 22, 2012

This is a monster release, click the Read More link below for a guided tour on what's new!

Read more

Nexus Dock v12.2 Released!

March 22, 2012

This is a monster release, click the Read More link below for a guided tour on what's new!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v11.10 Released!

November 18, 2011

Weather module working again, new Launch and Attention effects, new Tray tab in Preferences, and more...

Read more

Nexus Dock v11.10 Released!

November 18, 2011

Weather module working again, new Launch and Attention effects, and more...

Read more

Weather feed down!

November 6, 2011

Weather module not working? Find out why and what is being done about it.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v11.6 Released!

July 6, 2011

Maintenance release of Winstep Xtreme.

Read more

Nexus Dock v11.6 Released!

July 6, 2011

Maintenance release of Nexus and Nexus Ultimate.

Read more

New Winstep Theme: DarkTech

June 24, 2011

Brought to you by the Winstep design team - more in-house themes currently in the pipeline.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v11.5 Released!

June 23, 2011

System tray icon customization, ability to mix mouseover effects, support for animated icons, and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v11.5 Released!

June 20, 2011

Dock mouseover effects can now be combined with magnify effect, support for animated icons, and much more!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v11.2 Released!

March 14, 2011

New release featuring increased support for Microsoft's High DPI virtualization technology, and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v11.2 Released!

March 14, 2011

New release featuring increased support for backgrounds of 3rd party docks, preserving aspect ratio of image thumbnails, and much more!

Read more

Start Menu Organizer v1.5 Released!

March 14, 2011

New release adding more languages and increasing compatibility with 64 bit versions of Windows!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v10.9 Released!

October 14, 2010

Major release featuring nine new incredible dock mouseover effects, five new menu opening animations, Windows 7 "Superbar" ability with window previews and aeropeek capability on docks, horizontal sub-docks, and much more!

Read more

Nexus Dock v10.9 Released!

October 8, 2010

Major release featuring nine new incredible dock mouseover effects, Windows 7 "Superbar" ability with window previews and aeropeek capability, and much more!

Read more

Nexus featured at Download.com!

October 8, 2010

Nexus featured on the front page of Cnet's Download.com!

Read more

Start Menu Organizer v1.4 Released!

August 9, 2010

Version 1.4 fixes an issue in which the Pro version of the program could stop when expanding the Administrative Tools group and adds support for 23 languages.

Read more

Winstep Xtreme featured at Download.com!

July 18, 2010

Winstep Xtreme has been featured on the front page of Cnet's Download.com, not once, but twice!

Read more

Winstep Xtreme v10.6 Final Released!

July 13, 2010

Roughly 1 year in the making, the official upgrade to Winstep Xtreme v9.5 is finally here!

Read more

Nexus Dock v10.6 Released!

July 13, 2010

Maintenance release of our free popular Winstep Nexus dock.

Read more

Winstep announces strategic alliance with Proxma AG!

July 13, 2010

Proxma AG will market Winstep products in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Read more

Start Menu Organizer v1.3 Released!

July 2, 2010

New version of the Winstep Start Menu Organizer featuring support for even more languages.

Read more

Welcome to our new web site!

June 15, 2010

The Winstep web site gets a brand new face to match the quality of our products.

Read more