It's because Windows is flakey with what it names (often renaming if I recall) its default monitor.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

If you like, you can join in to test out Fences 3.1 by signing up here : https://forums.stardock.com/504549

Thanks

Basj

Stardock Community Assistant.

This isn't necessarily a fix JUST for the Fences issue (migrating to other windows) but perhaps to the bigger Microsoft issue of all of the open windows migrating to Monitor #1, resizing, and stacking on top of each other. Fences is, I'm sure, just a victim of this. The underlying problem for both of these issues is Microsoft, not Stardock. I purchased a $10 program called WindowManager that allows me to control EVERY program's window that I want to be persistent on either monitor or to have it launch in a predictable size and location.

I'm a non-geeky 67-year-old and Microsoft cost me 2 days and ruined the whole experience of a new computer running a new OS (Win10). I tried EVERYTHING, including some registry edits, which scared me silly. I was ready to go back to my old computer running Win7. I'm reluctant to recommend any program, but I think WindowManager may be the best $10 spent this week. And it's free for 30 days. I am not affiliated with the company at all. He's in Austria; I'm in Colorado. Also the best customer service I've had in many years, too.

Now that you mention it... I did have this issue prior to installing Fences. However, it was not a multiple times per day occurrence. It only seemed to happen at random before. Installing Fences seems to have magnified the problem. It happens now anytime my computer goes to sleep. The longer it "sleeps" the worse the problem seem to be (overnight/weekend vs an hour or two).

Here we go again, Fences did it again

I just installed a fresh copy of Windows 10 and two LG CX TVs via HDMI as monitors with Fences and while I admit windows are doing some shady things regarding multimonitor setups (and interestingly it's worse with my LG TVs being two monitors than it was in the past with old Panasonic plasma connected as the second monitor while primary being classic Dell monitor), Fences are not handling it gracefully. 

Yesterday I did set it up with my main fences stack on the primary monitor, I disabled When I plug in a new primary monitor move my icons to it just to reduce the probability of Fences triggering movement between displays for whatever reason (by the way there is lack of description what the switches mean in Layout and snapping preferences section, providing some sort of detailed description on mouse hover or something is good practice and Fences are lacking in this regard, it's very unclear what all the options mean). 

During the night my computer went to sleep and when I switched on the monitors in the morning (I don't remember which one I turned on first, but probably the secondary one) the fences were moved from primary to secondary and no matter how hard I tried (restarts, turning monitors on/off, while playing with that When I plug in a new primary monitor move my icons to it - nothing helped.

Then I discovered a little trick:

1. enable When I plug in a new primary monitor move my icons to it in Layout and snapping
2. turn off the second monitor
3. plug out HDMI cable from your primary monitor, plug it back in
4. after a while fences should move the icons back to primary

This is a nasty workaround as the primary monitor never really changed but it seems it works and it shows that Fences probably are too "sensitive" and treat some actions like there is a change in the primary/secondary monitor although there are not and there was no new primary monitor plugged in.

Although windows are not innocent I suppose (I have a bunch of other problems with this 2 monitors setup) this info stays the same no matter what, the primary and secondary monitor stays the same regardless of which one is currently off, it does not change after sleep etc so there probably is some info Fences could rely on when trying to decide what the primary display is.

I too have had this issue, but not only with fences... ALL my windows switches to monitor 1... EXCEPT a little program called "stickies" - which are notes that you place on the desktop. THEY stay in place. It would be interesting to find out what they are doing...

@paveltrka, I really love your little trick. For me it even works without unplugging / re-plugging my main monitor. I simply have to disable the second monitor in window's display settings temporarily. Though I imagine this isnt' true in anyone's setup. maybe I am just lucky...

Hmmph.... so we all need to pay for an upgrade to get this issue fixed?

The new update installed without incident and fixed a problem that had suddenly cropped up with Fences not remembering where they needed to be. I was having to manually restore a Snapshot every morning to get them positioned correctly. 

BTW, pressing Windows + spacebar for me results in my keyboard switching to Russian. Scared me to death when all of a sudden none of my keys were working correctly. So I think a lot depends on whether or not that keyboard shortcut is being used by a different program.

Update: It turns out that the new update DOES NOT fix the problem of Fences failing to position correctly on more than one monitor. When I turn my monitors on in the morning, all of my fences are placed on the center monitor (I use 3 monitors) and the ones that moved from a different monitor are just stacked on top of the ones on the center monitor. So this remains a bug.

Hi Sean, thanks for the response. Yes, those are the settings I use. My objection is that I have to restore the snapshot every morning when I turn on the monitors. I'd like Fences to be able to do that automatically. Or I'd like to figure out an AutoHotKey that I can do it. But there is no shortcut key for any of the buttons and I don't think there is any way to automate the selection of a specific snapshot, even if there is only one.

I have not enjoyed any aspect of Windows 10 (having upgraded last year from Win7). This is just one more thing to add to my gripe list. 

I've tried unchecking and checking that box with no change in behavior. Currently, it is checked. Please report back the results of your experiment.

It's been a few days since I have unchecked that box and so far my icons have not moved. There have been a few updated to Fences since I tried this as well. I cannot conclusively say if this setting fixed it, the updates fixed it, or if it is even fixed at all considering it's only been 3 days and it did not happen to me all the time but I will be keeping that box unchecked just in case.