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Nexus Dock v11.10 Released!

November 18, 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.


Weather module is now working again (you can read more about why it stopped working here).


Choose one of many effects available when launching an application or a dock item needs your attention...


What's New? Highlighted Features:


  • Besides getting the weather module to work again, robustness is increased by supporting two alternative weather forecast feeds: if one of those feeds fails in the future, the other will be used automatically.
  • You can now use most of the dock mouseover effects as the 'Launch' and 'Attention' effects.
  • Added new 'Flip3D' internal command, which you can now add to the dock and click to start Flip3D.
  • Fixed a problem with maximized Chrome windows where the dock would stop responding to edge bumps.
  • Fixed problem with animated dock control icons stopping to animate.
  • ... and more! Please see complete change log below...


Nexus v11.10 complete change log:


  • Updated Farsi language file.
  • Updated Polish language file.
  • Vista/Windows 7: Added new 'Start Flip3D' internal command.
  • Added customizable 'Launch' and 'Attention' effects to the dock.
  • Added support for the MSN Weather feed.
  • The Weather module now automatically falls back to the Google weather feed if the new MSN weather feed fails.
  • The 'Hide Dock Control Icon' setting in the dock Contents tab wasn't doing anything.
  • If the dock popup delay on mouseover was set to 0 ms it was almost impossible to get to the Windows Start Menu after clicking the 'Show Start Menu' internal command icon, as the Start Menu would immediately lose focus and disappear.
  • Because some Windows services may *potentially* block the Winstep service for up to 30 seconds (and thus freeze the Winstep application relying on it), no calls are now made to the Winstep service for the first minute after Windows startup, to give the system time to 'settle down.
  • Collapsing a floating dock would stop the Nexus control icon animation.
  • Animation settings for the Nexus control icon were not being used or saved.
  • A maximized Chrome window acted as a full screen window when appearing on a secondary monitor or if the taskbar was hidden. This would automatically and temporarily disable all edge bump activation methods, a feature implemented to prevent users from being accidentaly dumped into the desktop when playing full screen games.


Nexus Ultimate v11.10 complete change log:


  • Updated Polish language file.
  • Updated Farsi language file.
  • Added 'Keep Shelf visible when pressing WIN+D (Show Desktop)' setting to the Behavior tab of the Shelf Properties window.
  • Vista/Windows 7: Added new 'Start Flip3D' internal command.
  • Added customizable 'Launch' and 'Attention' effects to the dock.
  • The Weather module now automatically falls back to the Google weather feed if the Weather.com feed fails.
  • The 'Reset Tray Cache' button in the Troubleshooting dialog now displays a confirmation dialog.
  • Added new 'Tray' tab to Preferences to configure settings related to the system tray.
  • System tray customization can now be disabled in the new Tray tab in Preferences to avoid wasting resources in case the user has no intention to customize tray icons.
  • Added a secondary MSN Weather feed as backup.
  • A sub-dock on the Shelf now opens automatically when dragging an item over the sub-dock icon.
  • Added a setting (enabled by default) in the new Systray tab to automatically exclude system tray image caching for applications that generate more than 42 different tray images.
  • Added a Tray Exclusion list to manually exclude applications from having their tray icons cached.
  • The 'Hide Dock Control Icon' setting in the dock Contents tab wasn't doing anything.
  • The 'Tab Properties' dialog showed screen edge bump activation methods for that tab, which are not allowed.
  • If the dock popup delay on mouseover was set to 0 ms it was almost impossible to get to the Windows Start Menu after clicking the 'Show Start Menu' internal command icon, as the Start Menu would immediately lose focus and disappear.
  • Because some Windows services may *potentially* block the Winstep service for up to 30 seconds (and thus freeze the Winstep application relying on it), no calls are now made to the Winstep service for the first minute after Windows startup, to give the system time to 'settle down'.
  • Collapsing a floating dock would stop the Nexus control icon animation.
  • Animation settings for the Nexus control icon were not being used or saved.
  • License keys could be rejected as invalid if the user used a registration name so long that it caused the license key to exceed the size of the buffer allocated for it in memory. This has been fixed by doubling the size of the buffer.
  • A maximized Chrome window acted as a full screen window when appearing on a secondary monitor or if the taskbar was hidden. This would automatically and temporarily disable all edge bump activation methods, a feature implemented to prevent users from being accidentaly dumped into the desktop when playing full screen games.
  • Disabling the Shelf could cause the application to crash when exiting Preferences.
  • Fixed some z-order problems with in-Shelf sub-docks and drag & drop.

Archived News

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December 8, 2023

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December 8, 2023

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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?

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Happy Holidays!

December 20, 2022

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Winstep Xtreme v22.7 Released!

July 27, 2022

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

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Nexus Dock v22.7 Released!

July 27, 2022

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

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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!

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Happy Holidays!

December 20, 2020

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

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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!

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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!

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Happy Holidays!

December 18, 2019

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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Happy Holidays!

December 17, 2018

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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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!

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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!

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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?

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Black Friday!

November 23, 2018

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

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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!

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Nexus Dock v18.10 Released!

October 9, 2018

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

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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.

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Winstep Xtreme v18.8 Released!

August 30, 2018

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

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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!

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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!

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Nexus Dock v18.5 Released!

June 1, 2018

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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).

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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Happy Holidays!

December 22, 2017

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Cyber Monday!

November 27, 2017

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

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Winstep Xtreme v17.1 Released!

January 27, 2017

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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!

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Happy Holidays!

December 23, 2016

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Winstep Xtreme v16.12 Released!

December 8, 2016

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

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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!

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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.

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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..

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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!

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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!

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Winstep Xtreme v16.5 Released!

May 28, 2016

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

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Nexus Dock v16.5 Released!

May 28, 2016

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

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Winstep Xtreme v16.3 Released!

March 10, 2016

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

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Nexus Dock v16.3 Released!

March 10, 2016

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

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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!

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Nexus Dock v16.2 Released!

February 11, 2016

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

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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!

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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!

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Winstep Xtreme v15.7 Released!

July 27, 2015

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

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Nexus Dock v15.7 Released!

July 27, 2015

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

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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.

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Winstep Xtreme v14.11 Released!

November 7, 2014

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

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Nexus Dock v14.11 Released!

November 7, 2014

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

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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Winstep Xtreme v11.6 Released!

July 6, 2011

Maintenance release of Winstep Xtreme.

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Nexus Dock v11.6 Released!

July 6, 2011

Maintenance release of Nexus and Nexus Ultimate.

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New Winstep Theme: DarkTech

June 24, 2011

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

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Winstep Xtreme v11.5 Released!

June 23, 2011

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

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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!

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Winstep Xtreme v11.2 Released!

March 14, 2011

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

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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!

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Start Menu Organizer v1.5 Released!

March 14, 2011

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

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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!

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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!

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Nexus featured at Download.com!

October 8, 2010

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

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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.

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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!

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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!

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Nexus Dock v10.6 Released!

July 13, 2010

Maintenance release of our free popular Winstep Nexus dock.

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Winstep announces strategic alliance with Proxma AG!

July 13, 2010

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

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Start Menu Organizer v1.3 Released!

July 2, 2010

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

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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.

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