Useful as it is, the Windows task bar is far from being as visually enticing as the dock used by its main competitor. Nexus Ultimate has managed to provide Windows users with a similar and equally attractive dock that will not only help you to launch your favorite apps and programs with just one click, but will also add an attractive add-on to the otherwise boringly static Windows desktop.
This Ultimate version of Nexus does not add much in terms of appearance to the existing free version of the program, but it is huge step ahead when it comes to functionality. We can summarize it by saying that Nexus Ultimate supports multiple docks. This means that you can create parallel docks, sub-docks, and shelves, where you can store as many apps as you need and categorize them by theme, developer, etc. You can even add virtual system folders to your shelves, such as My Computer, Control Panel, etc.
There are also some extra tools available only for Ultimate users that you may also find attractive. Thus, you can add clock alarms and reminders for special events or scheduled tasks. You can also include additional widgets or modules, such as the calendar, a battery monitor, etc. The program can also display the contents of your disk or virtual system folders below your icons, and hide certain desktop icons and move them to a new Desktop tab in one of your shelves to “clean up” your packed-up desktop.
As mentioned, in terms of look and feel, there are no big differences between this and the free version of Nexus. The presentation of the dock itself as well as the icons is truly amazing. You can add effects to them to make them even more eye-catching and more dynamic. You can customize your dock(s) in many ways, from the icons size to their reflection, from its position on the screen to the number of modules, and from the animated effects you may want to add to them to the option to auto-hide the dock when not in use.
Nexus Ultimate will not only enhance your Windows desktop by making it more attractive and dynamic, it will also improve your productivity by allowing you to have your more frequently used apps, programs, system folders always at hand.
v18.8 [Aug 27, 2018]
- New Arabic language file.
- Updated the Hungarian language file.
- Updated Portuguese language file.
- The balloon tooltip of the 'Check for Updates' internal command now displays the last check for updates date as 'yesterday at' or 'today at' instead of the full date if the last check for updates occured less than 48 hours ago.
- The 'Task Manager' internal command now also appears in the 'System' category.
- Added support for multiple Shelves. Just like docks, each Shelf can have its own theme and settings.
- Added true high DPI support to Shelves. Previously only font sizes and icon sizes were affected, now the whole Shelf properly scales up on high-DPI systems.
- Added ability to scale Shelves up to 200% via a slider in the Appearence tab of the Shelf Properties dialog.
- Added new 'Scale' sub-menu to the 'Appearance and Sounds' sub-menu of the Shelf's main context menu.
- Number of icon rows shown at once on a Shelf is not collapsed can now go up to 99. The Shelf will only display as many icon rows as will fit on the screen.
- Updated the 'Send to WorkShelf' dialog so it can now handle multiple shelves.
- You can now disable voices independently of sounds and vice-versa.
- Added new 'Lock/Unlock Shelf Theme' option to the 'Appearance and Sounds' sub-menu of the Shelf's main context menu.
- Added support for vertical Shelves and options to dock them on left and right screen edges.
- Added 'Create New Shelf' and 'Duplicate Shelf' options to the 'Dock and Shelf Management' sub-menu of the Shelf's main context menu.
- 'Make Shelf tab from Dock' now prompts the user for a Shelf the new tab should be added to if there is more than one Shelf.
- 'In-Shelf Docks' were renamed to 'Sub-Docks'.
- Added new 'Tone' colorization method to colorize black and white (monochrome) background bitmaps.
- Added new 'Colorize with Windows Accent Color' option (Windows 10 only).
- Added new 'Now Playing' right click context menu option to the Media Player internal command, allowing a song in the currently selected playlist to be selected and immediately played.
- Added 'Repeat every days/months/years' setting to the alarms.
- Added new 'Drawers' object, a sort of single tabbed Shelf which will automatically extend by default to show all its items when open.
- Added 'Create New Drawer' option to the 'Dock and Shelf Management' right-click context menu and to the 'Dock & Shelves' tab in Preferences.
- Resizing a Shelf or Drawer by pulling on the tab header is now performed with a smooth animation.
- Colorization settings in the MOdules tab of Preferences for Desktop modules that are not skinned by the current theme (i.e.; display the iconic form) are now disabled.
- Hovering over a Shelf tab with a truncated name due to lack of space now pops up a tooltip with the full title of the tab.
- Added 'Check Integrity of Dock and Shelves' button to the Troubleshooting Options dialog in the Advanced tab of Preferences. This option checks the internal data structures for errors and offers to fix them automatically if it finds any.
- Adjusted the position of dock icon labels for docks not using the magnify effect so the label does not 'sit on the edge' of the dock background bitmap.
- It's now possible to pass arguments to UWP Apps by defining the argument in the Item Properties dialog
- The 'Task Manager' internal command was not working on Windows 10.
- Canceling a theme change in Preferences after applying it was not restoring the proper theme for docks with individual themes.
- A correct minimum Shelf width is now properly enforced when resizing the Shelf.
- Removing an item from the Shelf with auto-hide enabled resulted in the Shelf collapsing while the delete animation was still playing and then popping up as if expanded (but without being truly expanded).
- On certain themes smooth scrolling the Shelf would not display correctly if the Shelf was docked to the top or inverted when docked to the bottom.
- On certain legacy themes (OpenSTEP, for instance) the left and right mini-tab symbols were not displayed if the Shelf was docked to the top of the screen.
- Fixed issues related to being able to horizontally resize the Shelf beyond the minimum Shelf width.
- A dock set to auto-hide for maximized applications when always on top could fail to activate when the maximized application was no longer maximized if the dock was also set to display running applications.
- Fixed many misc.issues related to Shelves.
