Fences 3.10 Issue Report Thread

Fences 3.10 Changelog

• Improved startup times
• Disabled icon move animation (currently disabled with new installs only)
• Resolved issue with folder portal 'flicker'
• Resolved incorrect sorting (name, date, etc) of icons outside of Fences on the desktop
  https://forums.stardock.com/489644/page/1/#3718280
  https://forums.stardock.com/493308/get;3753480
• Fixed an issue with roll-up Fences where icon artifacts were left behind
  https://forums.stardock.com/503237/icons-persistence
  https://forums.stardock.com/490931/page/1/#3726170
• Much work was done to get icons to correctly go to proper monitors on multi-monitor systems
• Fixed issues with single width Fences (Fences with one icon horizontally)
  https://forums.wincustomize.com/489934/page/1/#3730904 
• Addressed issues with MS Office icons not remaining in Fences after edit and temp file creation. Example:
  https://forums.stardock.com/503237/icons-persistence
• Fixed an issue where restored snapshots were not also restoring color settings
• Fixed issue where selecting icons on desktop could select hidden icons in a roll-up Fence
  https://forums.stardock.com/503136
• New feature: Target based Rules:
  For example, works for 'steam' links, or any .lnk, .url, or .website file. (Resolves the target, and applies the match to the target).
  https://forums.wincustomize.com/504083/updatestatus-on-url-protocol-rulefilter

***Reserved***

With the release of 3.12, we are closing this thread.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

While we were able to resolve the crash issue, there are some outstanding ones we are still not comfortable with (WPE compatibility being the most pressing).  Thus, we are rolling back the live version of Fences to 3.09.11.

Your account page, should you have an account, will have it soon:

https://store.stardock.com/myaccount/products

And for guest checkout, please use:

http://www.stardock.com/support/productkeyretrieval

Sorry for the frustration and thanks for you understanding.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Fences 3.09

If anyone is having issues with 3.10, this is a link to 3.09.

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/Fences_3.09_setup_sd.exe

Note: This build WILL NOT work for Steam installs.  To get it in Steam, please see:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/607380/discussions/0/3055114073635150208/

Wallpaper Engine (WPE)

Anyone having an issue with Fences and that also have WPE installed should (as a test) uninstall WPE, reboot, and try again.

For more information on WPE and Fences compatibility, please see:

https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#WallPaperEngine

That said, we are working on what we may be able to resolve the issue.

Purge and Reinstall

If you are having issues, and prior to posting, please try a purge and reinstall of Fences 3.10:

https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#reinstalling

Post-install, you can restore any saved Fences Shapshots you had:

Crashes

Namely:

Update 07/23/2021 1:18 PM est:

We believe we have a fix for this issue.  Please install the following, reboot, and let us know if you still see this issue in a response here:

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/Fences_3.12-j75-Setup.exe

Recent feedback from a client has us VERY interested if this works for others:

https://forums.stardock.com/506034/get;3812665

PLEASE lets us know in this thread if it does work for you as well.

We have also seen this in situations where non-default security measures have been used on a PC. This thread details the journey \ resolution for a few clients:

https://forums.stardock.com/502301/page/1/#3792138

If you have those same settings and set them to defaults resolves it, please let us know in the comments below.

Wallpaper engine refuses to work with the latest version of fences and it happend after the install of the update.

Tried to restart my pc and disabling fences in the settings and restarting wallpaper engine makes wallpaper engine run but if i turn on fences again it stops working once more plz fix

Help to install update appreciated.

I installed the updated Fences 3.1.05 and Fences is not working. I get the following error message:

Fences has detected that Explorer was not closed properly, as a precaution Fences has been temporarily disabled.

To re-enebled Fences, right click your desktop and choose "Enable Fences".

I enabled Fences but the page keep re-freshing so I re-booted my computer and I am not able to enable Fences.  How do I revert to the previous verion of Fences that was working OK, until this problem is fixed.

The newest Update breaks DisplayFusion and Wallpaper Engine being able to work properly together.

I can definitely pinpoint the root cause to fences because the issue occurred directly after the restart after the update and was fixed once fences has been uninstalled.

Display Fusion has a Wallpaper Manager that can apply static wallpapers. Wallpaper Engine applies animated Wallpapers. Usually Wallpaper Engine is able to override Wallpapers set by Displayfusion (or supposedly any other Wallpaper Software). This makes it possible to have a combination of animated an non-animated Wallpapers.

With the newest Update of Fences this behaviour changes so that only the static wallpapers can be seen and any animated wallpaper can only be seen if the wallpaper IN WINDOWS is set to a single colour. The animated wallpapers are "hidden" between the static ones which previously was the other way around.
The Result is that both cannot work together because Display Fusion has no option to not apply a wallpaper to a screen and from a technical perspective its likely also not possible to implement because it just makes one big wallpaper for the whole desktop stitched together I think.

These 3 Programs worked fine before the Update and were compatible to the extend each of the features of the specific software is compatible.

Sadly I can't use the new Version as long as there is no solution for this issue :-/

Edit: Btw, can someone provide me a link to download the old version ? Seems like I don't have any installer for it.

I too have this problem, and hope to find an earlier exe in my downloads. Pls fix this immediately.

I have the exact same problem as Reply #7 on my system.

Help.

Same here, can start program just not enable Fences.

Quoting pfhruz, reply 7

 

I too have this problem, and hope to find an earlier exe in my downloads. Pls fix this immediately.

 

Exact same problem. Also, with Fences 3 installed several pieces of software that load on startup are not doing so now.

***CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE THE INSTALLER FOR THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF FENCES AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY?***

I also get the error "Fences has detected that Explorer was not closed properly, as a precaution Fences has been temporarily disabled." with the new 3.10 download.

I was able to reinstall 3.9 and it is working again.

I am on Windows 11 Preview.

Master K - How did you access the Fences 3.9 installer file? I would GREATLY appreciate your help/advice! 

PLEASE HELP!

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Please see:

https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#WallPaperEngine

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Please see:
https://forums.stardock.com/502301/page/1/#3792138

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Quoting mrugen, reply 4

Help to install update appreciated.

Make sure you have a recent Fences snapshot, uninstall, reboot, and reinstall the update.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Please see:

https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#WallPaperEngine

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Please see:

https://forums.stardock.com/502301/page/1/#3792138

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Latest Update has broken fences not as bad as above peoples but still not working as previously.

Using Windows 10 Edition, Version 20H2, Installed on ‎25/‎04/‎2021,OS build 19042.1110

Using Windows wallpaper app so no conflict with 3rd party app?

Fences software from start up menu works, Enable fences and 'Enable Fences' from right click fails to show fences.

Click and drag to make a fence fails.

Quoting OlderGit, reply 19

Latest Update has broken fences not as bad as above peoples but still not working as previously.

Using Windows 10 Edition, Version 20H2, Installed on ‎25/‎04/‎2021,OS build 19042.1110

Using Windows wallpaper app so no conflict with 3rd party app?

Fences software from start up menu works, Enable fences and 'Enable Fences' from right click fails to show fences.

Click and drag to make a fence fails.

If you are referring to Wallpaper Engine, please see:

https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#WallPaperEngine

For any other limited usability, please try a purge and reinstall:

https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#reinstalling

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Thank you sdRohan, purge and re-install worked.

Well thanks a bunch for that f-ed up 3.0 install.

I had to run the batch file to remove it and when I installed the 2.x version on my page it runs just fine, but all the MANY fences I have where nuked.

just wow...

Hi Sean,

I too am having the same error since installing update 3.1.05. 

Fences has detected that Explorer was not closed properly, as a precaution Fences has been temporarily disabled.

I am running Windows 10 version 21H1 & Fences was working fine before this new update was installed. 

Your link in Reply #15 has a lot of things to try or do. Since there are a lot of people having this problem, could you post on this page a detailed explanation of what should be done to resolve the error?

That's a bit of an easy cop-out answer, isn't it? Regardless of what your support faq says about Fences being incompatible with WallPaperEngine, it used to work perfectly fine with WallPaperEngine until today's update. The fact that you refer to your own wallpaper software, Deskscapes, makes me believe that you made Fences incompatible with WallPaperEngine on purpose just to push your own competitor to WPE.

I'm gonna look for a Fences 3.9 installer and work with that...

Please at least provide us with a link for the old version. I bought Fences AFTER testing it out with Wallpaper Engine and Display Fusion!

You can't just say 'Well its not compatible and not supported but here is a link to our inferior product that does the same so we can get more money'.

Like WTF! Your update broke the stuff that worked before! You could at least have have a look into the technical reasons why thats the case and check whether or not its fixable with a reasonable amount of effort. The old version of fences worked with multiple versions of DisplayFusion and Wallpaper Engine. It's not like every single update of either software broke fences or vise versa.