Important note to Windows 11 22H2 and above users:

What's New? Highlighted Features:

• Per-Monitor DPI Awareness.

Full support for per-monitor DPI scaling means Winstep applications now render correctly on systems with multiple monitors using different scaling/DPI settings.




Winstep applications were already high DPI compatible, which ensured crisp UI rendering and accurate positioning across high-DPI displays, what they were not was per-monitor high DPI compatible. This meant all monitors had to have the same DPI/scaling setting as the primary monitor, otherwise strange position and sizing bugs would occur on the secondary monitors.

With v25.6 this is no longer a problem and all screen objects will automatically resize/scale themselves appropriately as you move them between monitors with different DPI settings.


• Multi-Monitor Profile Enhancements.

DPI settings are now stored in the monitor profiles, while still maintaining backwards compatibility with previous configurations.







• Fix for Blank Page UWP app icons.

In the April preview/May update of Windows 11 Microsoft made a change to how UWP icons are rendered internally in order to no longer have a solid color background. Unfortunately this change also broke how UWP icon images are retrieved at the Windows API level which resulted in the images of UWP apps being displayed with a generic blank page icon.




It also seems to have made changes to "pointers" to some of the existing UWP apps that can also result in blank page icons, even in the Windows Desktop itself. This release fixes both this issues.


• New User Interactions.

ESC key now closes all windows and dialogs (equivalent to clicking on Cancel)
Ctrl + Right Click: Opens the item’s Properties directly.
Shift + Right Click: Reveals all context menu options regardless of state.




Middle Click behavior updated:

On task icons: opens a new instance of the application (default).
On shortcuts: always launches a new instance, regardless of the "do not launch multiple instances" setting.


• Weather feed improvements and fixes.

Weather module now fallsback to the location name if weather.com code fails.
Removed calls to the dead Weather.com and Yahoo weather feeds.




If the system short date format included anything other than the actual date (e.g. added day of the week as in "ddd dd/mm/yyyy") the weather module would always show N/A.

Fixed improper timezone detection in the MSN Weather feed causing a Sun to be displayed when a Moon should and vice-versa. .


• Performance and Internal Enhancements.

Increased resilience to invalid virtual shell items, reducing potential for crashes.




Greatly reduced CPU usage by:

Caching fonts in memory.
Merging UWP and Win32 process enumeration.
Process list is now maintained independently by the Winstep Helper service, reducing polling overhead.
Stopped polling every 5 seconds for UWP app visibility; now uses push system events.
Several other misc.optimizations.


• Quality of life improvements.




Automatic timestamping of manual backup filenames.
Improved password entry UX in the Email Checker.
Dialogs now open centered on the current monitor, not just the primary one.
New "Activate All" internal command brings all visible docks, shelves, and modules to the front even when hidden or collapsed.
Item Properties dialogs should now open faster.


• User Interface improvements and Dark Mode polish.

Overhauled the appearance of common controls in Dark Mode (Gray and Black) and Winstep GUI themes to better match Windows 10/11 aesthetics.

Before:




Now:




In Dark Mode (Gray), the expired renewal message text was changed from dark red to a more readable color.


• Many other features plus performance and stability improvements! Please see complete change log below...

WorkShelf v25.6 complete change log:

• Added *per-monitor* DPI compatibility, allowing Winstep applications to work properly on multi-monitor systems where scaling/DPI settings are not the same for all monitors.
• Multi-monitor profiles now also take into account the DPI setting of monitors, while still retaining compatibility with older monitor profiles.
• Removed calls to the dead Weather.com and Yahoo weather feeds.
• "System" and "[System Process]" are now translated.
• System Interrupts CPU usage is now retrieved by the Winstep Helper service.
• CPU Utility value is now only retrieved if 'Use Legacy Mode' is NOT checked.
• Clicking a Buy Now or Renew Now button now also copies the URL to the clipboard.
• Pressing CTRL while right clicking an item opens that item's Properties dialog.
• Pressing SHIFT while right clicking an item always shows all options in the right click context menu.
• Added new 'Activate All' internal command. Activates all enabled docks, shelves, drawers and desktop modules and brings them to the foreground.
• "Registry" and "Memory Compression" are now correctly identified in the list of processes instead of appearing as "[System Process]".
• Improved the appearance of many of the common controls for the Dark Mode (Gray), Dark Mode (Black) and Winstep GUI modes so they better match the Windows 10 and Windows 11 look.
• For Dark Mode (Gray) changed the color of the scrolling text at the bottom of the About screen when renewal has elapsed from dark red to a color more legible on the gray background.
• All dialog boxes with a Cancel button as well as information dialogs that have a single OK button will now close automatically when you press the ESC key.
• Manual Backup Settings now automatically adds a timestamp to the backup filename.
• If getting weather info using the weather.com code fails, the weather module now automatically tries again using the location name.
• Decreased processor usage by caching fonts in memory.
• Further decreased processor usage by merging the enumeration of running UWP apps with the enumeration of running Win32 apps.
• Increased resilience to bad virtual shell item pointers, which should no longer result in Access Violation errors.
• The balloon tooltip for themes in a shelf's Themes tab now also displays the name of the theme author.
• The list of running processes is now compiled independently by the Winstep service, which stops doing it if there are no requests from the main Winstep application for over 1 minute.
• Changed battery module charging animation to display current charge level, unless this value is not reported by the battery in which case the old animation is used.
• Selecting all the text in the password field for an existing account in the Email Checker module settings panel and then begin typing over it to replace the old password with a new password now also enables the show/hide password symbol.
• Changed the "unknow icon" image - if you prefer the old one go to the Icon Samples folder and replace Unknown.png with Question-mark.png.
• List of running tasks is no longer polled every 5 seconds to detect UWP apps being cloaked and uncloaked, the application now relies on "push" system events.
• Added a "Open New Instance" tasklist middle mouse click action, now the new default (previously it was "Close"), so that middle clicking on a running task icon launches a new instance of that application, just like Windows does.
• Clicking a shortcut with the middle mouse button now launches a new instance of that application regardless of the current 'Do not launch multiple instances' setting (same as pressing the SHIFT key when left clicking but more convenient).
• You can now also customize the tasklist/running list icon of Windows Apps.
• Main Preference windows now appear center screen on the current monitor rather than always center screen on the primary monitor.
• The Item Properties dialog should now open a bit faster.
• A shelf dragged to a new docked position could sometimes revert to the previous position after restarting the application.
• If the system short date format included anything other than the actual date (e.g. added day of the week as in "ddd dd/mm/yyyy") the weather module would always show N/A.
• Latitude and Longitude values could be lost when restoring settings between cultures with different decimal separators.
• Wanda would still swim on the desktop when running a full screen game. Now it just pauses when a full screen game or application is detected on the same monitor.
• Removed the 512 running processes limit in the Winstep service.
• MSN Weather feed was returning zero for the timezone of all countries, which many times meant a Sun was displayed by the weather module when it should be a Moon and vice-versa. When that happens the weather module now uses the default timezone list.
• UWP apps dragged from the list of running applications in a dock or the Tasks tab in a Shelf would have the wrong item type when dropped.
• Fixed misc control size and text cropping issues with non-English languages on high DPI monitors.
• Icons of UWP apps showed as blank paper icons after the April preview / May 2025 Windows 11 update.
• Selection bar might not appear where you expected it when adding tasks to the Task Customization and Task Exclusion lists if running the application on a high DPI monitor.
• An icon could remain in a "flashed" state after dragging a file over it.
• It was possible to open more than one full screen clock and sleep timer at once.
• Floating shelves and drawers could appear in the wrong location with a wrong size when starting up if monitor DPI was changed since the last session.

NextSTART v25.6 complete change log:

• Added *per-monitor* DPI compatibility, allowing Winstep applications to work properly on multi-monitor systems where scaling/DPI settings are not the same for all monitors.
• Multi-monitor profiles now also take into account the DPI setting of monitors, while still retaining compatibility with older monitor profiles.
• Clicking a Buy Now or Renew Now button now also copies the URL to the clipboard.
• Added new 'Activate All' internal command. Shows all enabled docks, shelves, drawers and desktop modules and brings them to the foreground.
• Hotspot button tooltips are now horizontally centered on the button.
• Improved the appearance of many of the common controls for the Dark Mode (Gray), Dark Mode (Black) and Winstep GUI modes so they better match the Windows 10 and Windows 11 look.
• For Dark Mode (Gray) changed the color of the scrolling text at the bottom of the About screen when renewal has elapsed from dark red to a color more legible on the gray background.
• All dialog boxes with a Cancel button as well as information dialogs that have a single OK button will now close automatically when you press the ESC key.
• Manual Backup Settings now automatically adds a timestamp to the backup filename.
• Replaced the "hotspot" image in the Hotspots Wizard dialog.
• Changed the "unknow icon" image - if you prefer the old one go to the Icon Samples folder and replace Unknown.png with Question-mark.png.
• List of running tasks is no longer polled every 5 seconds to detect UWP apps being cloaked and uncloaked, the application now relies on "push" system events.
• Added a "Open New Instance" tasklist middle mouse click action, now the new default (previously it was "Close"), so that middle clicking on a task button in the taskbar launches a new instance of that application, just like Windows does.
• You can now also customize the tasklist/running list icon of Windows Apps.
• Arguments for UWP apps can now be passed via drag & drop.
• Main Preference windows now appear center screen on the current monitor rather than always center screen on the primary monitor.
• The Item Properties dialog should now open much faster.
• Power Saving was not engaging for 'Activate on full screen application'
• Icons of internal commands were only being refreshed to update status on the primary taskbar
• Changes in colorization (for instance, wallpaper hot-track) were only affecting the primary taskbar
• The live preview thumbnails might not appear properly on a taskist detached from a startbar set to appear on all monitors.
• Hotspot buttons on the desktop were not being scaled according to monitor DPI.
• The correct icon for a particular hotspot wasn't always being displayed in the Hotspots tab of Preferences.
• The icon for an hotspot in the Hotspot tab of Preferences could sometimes appear blank.
• Icons of UWP apps showed as blank paper icons after the April preview / May 2025 Windows 11 update.
• Selection bar might not appear where you expected it when adding tasks to the Task Customization and Task Exclusion lists if running the application on a high DPI monitor.
• Fixed misc.issues with management of UWP apps.