Question about Fences 4 (now 6) features and bug fixes

from Stardock Forums

Hello,

I stopped using Fences 3 due to issues that created less desktop organisation rather than more. I'm wondering if they've been addressed in Fences 4.

The issues are these:

 

1.

Fences 3 wouldn't automatically remember and preserve the positions of desktop icons that weren't inside Fences, when the desktop resolution was changed by an application. On its own, Windows automatically remembers and restores desktop icon placements when the resolution is changed in a way that pushes icons around. So, if launching a game that changes the resolution to 800 x 600, and then returning to the desktop, Windows will automatically restore the icon layout that was there before launching the game. But after installing Fences 3, that ability would be lost, and icons would get scattered around everywhere after launching that game and returning to the desktop.

I explained and demonstrated the issue in these threads:

https://forums.stardock.com/488882/page/1/#3713029

https://forums.stardock.com/494183/page/1/#3749067

 

2.

In Fences 3, when having multiple pages and a large number of icons, there could become conflicts and glitches between icons on different pages, and when click-dragging on one page, Fences would sometime grab icons from another page and move them to the current page.

I described this issue in more detail, in this thread:

https://forums.stardock.com/494183/page/1/#

 

3.

A Fences 3 issue would sometimes prevent me from moving icons to an empty spot on the desktop that I wanted to move them to.

I explained and demonstrated the issue in the second-half of this post:

https://forums.stardock.com/486019/page/1/#

 

 

Some features I'm interested to have in Fences, and which I'm wondering if any of them are in Fences 4, are these:

- ability to scale-down the size of icons within fences

- ability to skip spaces in Fences, so not every icon needs to be next to each other, just like how on the Windows desktop, icons can be spread across the desktop and don't need to be next to each other

 

fences
7,156 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I have forward your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

There have been many changes for Fences 3, some noted in the changelog - others under the hood and more subtle.  We encourage you to install Fences 4 and start a trial to see if you can still reproduce your issues.  If so, report as much and we will work on them.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting sdRohan, reply 2

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

There have been many changes for Fences 3, some noted in the changelog - others under the hood and more subtle.  We encourage you to install Fences 4 and start a trial to see if you can still reproduce your issues.  If so, report as much and we will work on them.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager
End of sdRohan's quote

 

Hi,

I have gotten Fences 4 and tried it on a new Windows installation. I can confirm that these issues still exist in it:

 

1.

Fences 3 wouldn't automatically remember and preserve the positions of desktop icons that weren't inside Fences, when the desktop resolution was changed by an application. On its own, Windows automatically remembers and restores desktop icon placements when the resolution is changed in a way that pushes icons around. So, if launching a game that changes the resolution to 800 x 600, and then returning to the desktop, Windows will automatically restore the icon layout that was there before launching the game. But after installing Fences 3, that ability would be lost, and icons would get scattered around everywhere after launching that game and returning to the desktop.

I explained and demonstrated the issue in these threads:

https://forums.stardock.com/488882/page/1/#3713029

https://forums.stardock.com/494183/page/1/#3749067

 

3.

A Fences 3 issue would sometimes prevent me from moving icons to an empty spot on the desktop that I wanted to move them to.

I explained and demonstrated the issue in the second-half of this post:

https://forums.stardock.com/486019/page/1/#

 

I haven't confirmed that the second issue I listed in the OP still exists in Fences 4, because I haven't created multiple pages and filled them with icons. Yet, even with only a single desktop page with a bunch of icons on it, I have encountered the 3rd issue I listed, and multiple times. I'm going to build a new PC soon, and I'd like to be able to use Fences 4 with it. But with the issues I've mentioned here, I think it would be less organisational than Windows is without it. I have applications change desktop resolutions regularly, and it's a lot of extra effort to have to manually take icon-placement snapshots and then manually restore them after using a program, when Windows 10 and 11 (and I think 7 and 8) normally automatically remember and restore icon placements upon resolution changes. But if these issues I mentioned were addressed in a patch, I would happily use Fences.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi. Has any work been made to fix the issues I last reported still exist in Fences 4? I have a new PC and Windows installation, and I'm wondering if I should install Fences.

By the way, in my previous post, I reported that the 1st and 3rd issue listed in the OP were still present in Fences 4 at that time (November, 2022). But I didn't confirm that the 2nd issue is fixed. I just wasn't using multiple desktop pages and didn't have a chance to test and find out whether the 2nd issue, related to dragging icons on one page resulting in icons from another page being moved to the focused page, is still in Fences 4 or not.

 

Edit: I've installed Fences.

In the customization menu for preserving Fences layouts on resolution changes, it would be good to also have an option that says "Preserve my desktop fences and icons layout", so that no manual snapshots need to be done.

I would also remove the confirmation popup window upon taking a snapshot, or provide an option to never see the confirmation window again - just like there's a checkbox in the window for restoring a snapshot which says something like "never ask this again". The fewer unnecessary clicks, the better - all the way up to never having to manually save and restore icon layouts, because the program automatically restores them on resolution changes.

Also, there's no need to have a "snapshot deleted!" confirmation window popup after deleting a snapshot. Fences already asks the user for confirmation if they want to delete a snapshot before deleting it. So, having a popup to confirm the confirmation is redundant, needlessly adding more clicks to perform a simple task.

An option to lock desktop icons so other programs can't move them could also be nice. In Windows 11, I find that when I download things to my desktop, Windows often shifts all my desktop icons to put the newly-downloaded thing right below my recycle bin, which is in the top-left of my screen. This hasn't happened on any other version of Windows I've used. It's pretty annoying and makes me need to reshuffle my icons each time it happens.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

When I installed Fences 4 at the suggestion given here, I was disappointed to find that none of these issues had been fixed, despte it being said they were being looked at in previous threads. Now I'm wondering if any of these issues have been fixed in subsequent versions of Fences. I won't trust a "try it and find-out" suggestion again.

I see someone asking a question about preserving icon layouts here: https://forums.stardock.com/538626/where-did-snapshot-go

But there's no confirmation given on whether the latest version of Fences does remember icon placements between resolution changes.

Since Windows 7, Windows has natively remembered and restored icon placements based on resolution and DPI scaling. And so, switching resolutions or DPI scaling wouldn't mess-up icon placement, and wouldn't require manually replacing items or saving 'snapshots', or anything like that. But Fences took away that automatic Windows functionality, and replaced it with the manual "snapshots" feature, which is incredibly cumbersome.

Without desktop layouts (not just for fences) being automatically preserved between resolution changes, and with me regularly running programs that change the desktop resolution, Fences made the Windows experience very ineffecient and frustrating.

So, has that basic, native Windows functionality finally been restored to Fences after all these years?

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Fences 6 includes this functionality. There is no special setting to enable. For new installations it is on by default. If you upgrade from 4, you may have to go to the Layout tab to enable it.

 

Any time you change resolutions or plug or unplug a monitor Fences will automatically remember your group layouts on a per-monitor, per-screen-resolution/per-DPI basis with no manual steps to take.

 

We recommend the subscription to stay up to date with compatibility updates and enhancements. It’s a good value and is updated regularly.