First-Run Tour

This page walks the dashboard once, left to right, so you know where everything lives. It assumes Nexus is installed and running; if not, start with Installing Nexus.

1. The welcome screen

On the very first launch, Nexus shows a one-time welcome screen ("Welcome to Nexus"). It asks whether Nexus should start with your computer and whether to share anonymous usage statistics ("Help improve Nexus"), then "Enter" takes you into the app. Both choices can be changed later in Settings.

2. The sidebar

The left sidebar is your main navigation:

  • The Nexus logo at the top returns you to the apps home.
  • "Apps" is that home: a widget canvas plus the app catalog (more below).
  • Pinned apps come next. A fresh install pins "Monitoring", "Lighting", and "Cooling". Right-click any app for "Pin to sidebar" or "Unpin from sidebar"; apps you open without pinning appear below the pinned set as recent entries.
  • "Devices" lists the devices Nexus currently sees, each with its own page. It shows "No devices connected" until something is detected.
  • "Pair remote" sits at the bottom: it opens phone pairing and shows how many remote devices are connected right now.

3. The apps home

The "Apps" home has two tabs: "Dashboard" and "Marketplace". The Dashboard tab is a free-form widget canvas; "Add Widget" opens a catalog of widgets (clock, weather, monitoring, media, and many more) you can place, resize, and arrange. "Desktop Widgets" manages widgets floating directly on your desktop.

4. Monitoring, Lighting, Cooling

The three default apps are where most time goes:

  • Monitoring shows live hardware data with tabs for "CPU", "GPU", "Memory", "Storage", "Network", and a "Detailed" tab exposing the full sensor tree. See the Monitoring Overview.
  • Lighting is the RGB engine: pick a mode ("Animation", "Mirror", "Media", or "Off"), then an effect from categories like "Simple", "Pattern", "Geometric", "Organic", "Cosmic", and "Audio Reactive". See the Lighting Overview.
  • Cooling holds fan control: presets named "All Silent", "All Balanced", "All Turbo", and "Custom", plus "Off" to hand fans back to the BIOS, and editable fan curves. See Fan Control Basics.

5. The top bar

Along the top you will find:

  • Back and forward navigation, and a control to collapse the sidebar.
  • The search pill ("Search Nexus"): type to jump to pages, settings, and actions.
  • Status badges, when relevant: "App conflict" if another program is fighting Nexus for a device (see Other RGB & Fan Software), and "Update available" or "Install update" when a new version is around (see Updating Nexus).
  • The profile menu, where profiles live ("Manage profiles"): a profile captures your setup, and you can create, switch, import, and export them.
  • The "Menu" button (the three dots) with "Settings", "Check for updates", "Discord", and "About".

6. Settings

Settings opens from the "Menu" button and has four tabs: "General" (language, startup behavior, and on Windows the "Software updates" section), "Appearance", "Monitoring", and "Privacy & Data". The bottom of the window shows the exact version you are running.

7. Where next

Take the Quick Start path if you have not yet: see your sensors, apply a lighting effect, and optionally pair your phone as a remote panel.