Thanks. In the interest of clarification, let me just say that Winstep software is NOT subscription based (as in 'rental' software): it simply offers a year of free updates. Any versions you download during that year are yours and will keep on working forever. After your year of free updates elapses you are also not obliged to upgrade to newer versions in any way. And, if and when you do, you only have to pay half the price of your initial purchase (even if that initial purchase was 10 years ago). This in turn entitles you to another year of free upgrades and so on.

You can read more information about Nexus Ultimate Upgrade Policy HERE.

Hey! I do whine about Windows 10. A lot, in fact. Hate the thing.

I have to come to Stardock's defense here, because as a software developer I feel the same way as they do concerning this issue:

A change to a new version of Windows is not a trivial thing, especially when talking about applications that work so close to the OS itself as Windows customization applications do.  A lot of the time they depend on specific Windows functionality that Microsoft can - and often does - change.

Same thing happens with hardware drivers, for instance. How many times did you have to wait for an updated driver to be released in order to use hardware that was working fine with the previous Windows version? And sometimes hardware vendors don't even bother making new drivers, leaving you with a costly paper weight that would otherwise be fully functional. Now THAT is infuriating.

Bottom line is, when you upgrade to a new version of Windows you should NOT expect things to keep on working as before - some will, some won't. You know you run that risk whenever YOU make the decision to move to a new Windows version. And nobody forces you to upgrade Windows either, certainly not the software nor the hardware vendors. Their stuff was working properly when you bought it, on the version of Windows it was intended for.

When a new Windows version comes out, making your software work on an environment that is sometimes radically different from the one before is not a trivial task either. It implies many hours of research to figure out what Microsoft changed and how to work around it. It's a lot of hard work.

I remember when Vista came out, for instance. It was so radically different from XP under the hood that I literally spent months working on getting Winstep software ready for it, all the time sweating and cursing under my breath.

This amount of work and effort deserves to be rewarded, so you can't blame the software vendor if he decides to charge you for it. It was YOUR decision to jump to a new Windows version, after all.

Now, as you know, there are several types of upgrading policies out there: some vendors charge you for MAJOR versions (which is pretty arbitrary: I can change a couple of lines of code, make a few cosmetic changes, and call that a major version upgrade if I need to ) and Stardock and Winstep have a one year of free upgrades policy (with renewals costing a fraction of the initial purchase price).

If your year of free upgrades has already run out when you install the new Windows version, you can't then blame the vendor if software that was made for the previous version of Windows no longer works correctly. You have a choice of paying for an upgrade whenever one is released, stop using the software, or go back to the previous version of Windows.

The other side of the coin of the 'one year of free upgrades' policy is that you won't have to pay a dime if the update making the software compatible with the new Windows is released while your period of free updates is still in effect.

That nails it...

Dear Jorge,

I think I understand what you are saying, and thank you so much for elaborating on it!

Though I have to bring in that you could (past tense?) buy Stardock software for a one-time fee, i.e. without yearly subscription if you only want one or two of their applications. What I just did with WindowBlinds and ObjectDock (and a few more later). Meaning, the software worked well until the (official, not pre-versions) release of that new Windows version. And version X+1 (upgrade version) worked immediately for the new OS. It was okay to pay for the upgrade, and you are right that I might not be too harsh about Stardock in that case. It’s just that their way of claiming a software to be Windows 10 ready (and obviously still selling it), while at the same time stating here that they cannot support that BETA version of an OS anymore, plus their trolling accusal (while I had been loyal to them since possibly a decade or even more), doesn’t suite well for my understanding of handling business and people. I reckon they might be too big to care for such a little by-product like ObjectDock.

Just one question......If OD is not compatible with W10 then why is it working for some people? If its not compatible then it shouldn't be working, period. Yet it is. Strange

ObjectDock works on Windows 10. This issue of blank icon for some applications (Example: Those apps not using traditional .exe's, at least that's what we've found) has been reported and we do not currently have a fix. We do not have a work around at this time either (but if we did I certainly would post it). We are not ignoring you, we just don't have any news right now about it.

I wouldn't say that OD isn't working on Win10 because it's run into this 1 issue, which isn't impacting the usage of the app. The app still loads, it still displays shortcuts, the weather, and so forth. It has a bug, this is true. I won't repeat what's already been said about the OS and apps.

Some of you are saying that since we now have your money, you're out of luck and on your own. This is absolutely not true and I take offense to that since it is my job to support these apps and you the customer. We have long supported applications and games that are no longer the most popular shortcut on your desktop and we will continue to do so. Please, have some patience with this.

If you run into any other issues, Win10 specifically, please send details our way: https://esupport.stardock.com/index.php?/Tickets/Submit 

Some of us are saying that yes, it feels like there is no or at least very minor support for ObjectDock in your company, even though we once paid for it. Some of us have not encountered problems starting with Windows 10, but with Windows 8 x64 already which have not seen a fix, and gotten more issues now with Windows 10 that have already been coverered and partly ignored by Stardock up to date. And at least one of us had been accused of trolling by Stardock support and has now moved on to something that actually works.