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Error: 'Fences has detected that Explorer was not closed properly'

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Error: 'Fences has detected that Explorer was not closed properly'

from Stardock Forums

EDIT 08/02/2022
Seeing that all known crash issues have been addressed within Fences 4, we are closing this thread.  If you are still using Fences 3 and experiencing crashes, please install the trial for Fences 4 to see if you still see them:

https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/download-trial

Should your issues be resolved, there is a substantial discount to upgrade to Fences 4:

https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/download

EDIT 05/19/2022

We think we might have a fix for one crash that is possible with Fences and folder portals.  Please see if the just-released beta does indeed resolve it for you and report back here either way, please.

https://forums.stardock.com/512519/fences-4059-beta-feedback-thead

Special thanks to k3nny5 for working with us in Teams to help resolve it.

EDIT 05/12/2020
Changed the process for collecting data \ crash dumps in the instructions below.

EDIT 12/23/2021
Thanks to help from user altae here, we have confirmed that if DisplayFusion is running, this can cause the issue.  If you have DisplayFusion installed, or other 3rd party multimonitor software (Actual Multiple Monitors, UltraMon, etc), please try uninstalling and a reboot. 

EDIT 12/21/2021
If you are seeing this issue on Windows 11, and have WindowBlinds installed as well, it will very likely crash.  Please uninstall WindowBlinds to see if you still have the issue.

EDIT 11/01/2021
Any post that does not directly contribute to finding the cause will likely be removed.  Also, to find said cause, the data asked for above is crucial.  If it is absent, the post will likely be removed. 

EDIT 10/25/2021
We are seeing that many PC \ OS related issues are clouding the data \ feedback received on this issue.

Prior to doing any of the below, we ask that you have 1st don't the following.

If nothing is resolved from it, please proceed with the below.

For some, when enabling Fences, they are seeing:

'Fences has detected that Explorer was not closed properly'

Specifically for them, we need more data to find the cause. 

Manually Collecting Crash Dump

We are now asking for the manual collection of crash dumps.  instructions on how to do this has been posted here:

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

To help see if Fences is the cause of any crash, Fences has the capability to capture more data when there are crashes.  To enable it, the Fences registry needs to be changed.  One can do so by downloading and running this registry edit file:

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/FencesAllCrashesNew.zip

We are continuing to look into the crashing reports but we believe the number of users impacted is small at this time. That said, we take this very seriously and want to try and triage specific cases to see if there is a common denominator. 

MS Teams Collaboration

As one would suspect, this cant be done in the forums for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is we need data (startups, running services, sysinfo, etc).  To best accomplish this, we are going to set up a Microsoft Teams 'Team' \ Channel and invite clients having this issue to it.  The requirements for participation would be:

  • English speaking and preferably in the Western Hemisphere (for real-time chat)
  • Able to reproduce crashes at will with the latest version of Fences 4 (not Fences 3)
  • Are ok to submit data (startups, running services, sysinfo, etc) upon request
  • Are willing to stick with the troubleshooting process for (potentially) weeks.

If you can meet these requirements, please post as much here and I will send out invitations and instructions to you directly.

We thank you very much for your feedback and patience.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

fences
660,713 views 284 replies
Reply #27 from Stardock Forums Top

Another one.  Did not trigger BugSplat.

https://udmercy0-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/vinarcmi_udmercy_edu/EQs27yF9SgVHjwDiwLxAMVUBe34bvJHZZ2XNU0bWV8EYEQ?e=xhhLUP

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #28 from Stardock Forums Top

Can anyone run me through the steps clearly...that will resolve the "Explorer not being closed properly issue??

I have Fences 3 but it is unusable. Right click enable does not work. It allows installation and setup, but upon reboot the error occurs. I have uninstalled and used purge fences but no effect.

This issue started several days ago for the first time.

Windows 10 64 bit. AMD A8 processor.

 

Thank you,

Reply #29 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting downeywright, reply 28

Can anyone run me through the steps clearly...that will resolve the "Explorer not being closed properly issue??

I have Fences 3 but it is unusable. Right click enable does not work. It allows installation and setup, but upon reboot the error occurs. I have uninstalled and used purge fences but no effect.

This issue started several days ago for the first time.

Windows 10 64 bit. AMD A8 processor.



Thank you,

Please refer to the initial post in this thread for what we need to diagnose the issue.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #30 from Stardock Forums Top

I have this issue when i assign an order in some folders, then this problem appears and the only form to use fences is to change back to a previous snapshot and then i can enable fences. The today snapshot also crash fences, so i only have option to restore fences with a day when i didn't have this problem.

Edit: Fences crashes for me only when i navigate in some folders with portal folders.

Reply #33 from Stardock Forums Top

This started happening to me yesterday (multiple Explorer restart attempts resulting in the error msg from Fences).

SFC reported corrupt files and successfully repaired them (according to SFC, that is).

I uninstalled Fences3 from Windows and reinstalled from Stardock.  This failed at the license entry dialog with the same symptoms.

Purged Fences3, reinstalled from Stardock, and got through the license dialog and into Fences.  Purge didn't clear the Backups folder which contained a Pre-Install Snapshot and 3 daily backups.  Fences Layout recognizes only the Pre-Install Snapshopt (xml and png files) but none of the previous 3 days of backups (just xml files).  Why?

Reply #34 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting ddminnl, reply 33

Fences Layout recognizes only the Pre-Install Snapshopt (xml and png files) but none of the previous 3 days of backups (just xml files).  Why?

Please create a new thread for this detailing what happens when you try to restore them, the ones you want to restore, if anything.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #35 from Stardock Forums Top

I have a FIX, for the folder portal crashing....

 

I STOPPED USING IT and put a standard shortcut on my desktop.  Problem solved, it has yet to crash once.

 

JP

Reply #37 from Stardock Forums Top

Does Stardock have a recommended solution?  I love fences, my work is controlled by them on three computers, computer data management is so much easier because of fences.  I am not a "geek" and do not understand a lot in this thread.

What does Stardock recommend to resolve the issue? I need help and a resolution, not a thread of options.

+1 Loading…
Reply #38 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting gwd3, reply 36

How do I get the "purgefences" app, or is it a ".bat" file?

Hello,

Would you do this PURGE: https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#reinstalling

Reboot and ReInstall the latest version from your account https://store.stardock.com/myaccount/products/

and Immediately Reboot , test and report back please.

 

AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #39 from Stardock Forums Top

Since the corresponding beta thread has been closed I post my answer here:

Quoting altae,
reply 43
For me Fences 4 (latest beta, downloaded today) still suffers from the "Fences has detected that Explorer was not closed proberly." issue whenever explorer.exe is restarted. Explorer.exe loops approximately 3 times and then Fences is automatically disabled. As soon as explorer.exe has been loaded completely I can re-enable Fences without any issues. The same issue was already present with Fences 3.13. It first happened after I upgraded to Windows 11 (never happened on Windows 10).

 

 

If you remove all Fences folder portals from the desktop, does that still happen?

 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

 

There are no folder portals on my desktop.

Reply #40 from Stardock Forums Top

Recently started getting this issue.  First occurrence as I was navigating folders in a portal. (And I predominantly use it for the portals.)

Running Win 10 Pro with Object Desktop and Fences 4 Beta, now upgraded to F4.0.0.3

have been through the various purge, dism, sfc etc steps as described. SFC reported that it fixed some corrupted files.  Possibly link: Over the last few days I have also noticed that the explorer preview pane and thumbnail icons are behaving inconsistently - sometimes showing preview/thumbnail other times not.

Not triggering the BugSplat  either.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d8p3p78u79smppy/fences_debug_snapshot%20dhf%202021-12-09_1649.zip?dl=0

Reverting to the pre-install snapshot allows me back in and I can add fences and portals - so far with no repeat issues.

Reply #41 from Stardock Forums Top

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5wadphx9ey2wtd2/TroubleshootingLog.zip?dl=0

I recently flew from Spain to Finland. With me, I had two laptops, one HP Envy and one HP Elitbook. Both with Win10 and Fences running happily since many years,

On arrival the Elitebook was OK but the Envy had the dreaded "Fences has..." problem. (First time ever)  While Fences was impossible to activate in my user account it still ran happily in the admin account.

Reply #42 from Stardock Forums Top

Reading this thread is depressing,.    

Your Fences software is creating an error so your support reply is re-install standard stuff but the next step is "clean windows " wtf ?

 

  • I uninstall fences removed all settings and windows booted perfect
  • done windows update again windows started perfect no issues
  • fresh clean install of fences on boot up (CRASHING EXPLORER AGAIN on startup ) 

 

Really it's just icon software and your crashing people's computers?

 

how about writing a patch & doing an update?

TURN OFF THE FEATURE THAT IS CAUSING THE ISSUE !! clearly, windows does NOT like something fences is doing

because FENCES IS CRASHING WINDOWS EXPLORER ON STARTUP !. ( note:- windows explorer is kind of important to most users)

maybe write a script/patch to help turn off that thing?

or a script/patch to fix the windows setting your software is screwing up?

 

 

the fact I spent real time playing with my icons and writing this message make me sad....

 

Reply #43 from Stardock Forums Top

By any chance are those of you having this issue since updating to Windows 11 also running Windowblinds on that machine? I ask because after pretty much beating my head against a wall trying to figure this out it turns out the culprit was actually WIndowblinds which is not yet compatible with WIndows 11. Surprised me it wasn't as it stayed installed and seemed to work mostly fine after the update. 

I unloaded Windowblinds this morning and not a single crash since then so I just uninstalled it. I will reinstall as soon as the software is updated to run on Win11 which I am afraid might be a process as I understand that OS is not allowing any editing of the task bar at all.  The update also broke my system tray clock. Between losing Windowblinds and my clock I am not a happy camper

Reply #46 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting thomas4d, reply 42

Really it's just icon software and your crashing people's computers? 

how about writing a patch & doing an update?

TURN OFF THE FEATURE THAT IS CAUSING THE ISSUE !! clearly, windows does NOT like something fences is doing

because FENCES IS CRASHING WINDOWS EXPLORER ON STARTUP !. ( note:- windows explorer is kind of important to most users)

maybe write a script/patch to help turn off that thing?

or a script/patch to fix the windows setting your software is screwing up? 

the fact I spent real time playing with my icons and writing this message make me sad....

Quoting kbennett65, reply 43

By any chance are those of you having this issue since updating to Windows 11 also running Windowblinds on that machine? I ask because after pretty much beating my head against a wall trying to figure this out it turns out the culprit was actually WIndowblinds which is not yet compatible with WIndows 11. Surprised me it wasn't as it stayed installed and seemed to work mostly fine after the update. 

Thus far, the common link for the few that are seeing this (yes, it's not rampant) is the use of Folder portals, and maybe not all portals, but ones that lead to certain places (off PC \ network drives \ sync'd folders (OneDrive for example)) or have certain file types.  The removal of them to see if that resolves the issue would be helpful to know.

And that there is only a small percentage of people seeing this does not mean it is not a priority for us - it very much is.  It's just not nearly as common as you might believe.

Thanks for the feedback.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #47 from Stardock Forums Top

I do not have any folder portals  at all, only shortcuts I do have 2 monitors 1920x 1200 & 3840x1200

but this bug has appeared due to changes in Windows maybe Onedrive in the last few months ?

adding a tick box to turn OFF folder portal feature or anything to do with that code error to help users who have this issue get back to using fences again ?

 

"only a small percentage of people seeing this"

That you know of , This is Icon managing software ( Not AutoCAD or Office 365 ) are icons a priority for anyone ?

how many people are reporting issues ? or are just uninstalling Fences and not checking for a solution online or this forum ?

Reply #48 from Stardock Forums Top

I uninstalled windows blinds, fences... only using Start11 from Stardock at the moment... it's been ever since Windows 11 came out. 

Reply #49 from Stardock Forums Top

I'm new to Fences and I was just completing the trial on my Win 10 desktop unit when I had to travel out of town for a few days. I was very happy with the way that the trial had gone and was all set to go ahead and purchase when I got back in yesterday... until I started up the desktop and got the "Explorer would not close" message on startup, followed by the loops when I tried to restart Fences.

After looking for a fix online, and after reading the discussion here, I've decided to wait until things get fixed before I purchase. When will that be? I can't seem to find any sort of answer. But I thought I would register and sign in here to add my experience story to the list. 

Funny, on my trip I had relayed with some enthusiasm to another computer user about my Fences 'discovery' and now I think I have to contact them back and say, "Hold on, a minute."

It's a real shame because I really loved what Fences did for my desktop organizing. I guess it's back to desktop folders of Windows-generated shortcuts for this would-be Fences supporter.

Reply #50 from Stardock Forums Top

I'd like to know when this will be fixed? It would almost be easier to re-write the entire application than fixing it at this point. Get things done Stardock! You have paying customers with a unusable product.