These:

That would be more telling if you did the clean boot portion as well, disabling all but the Windows essential services - did you - or no... you just did the new Admin account?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

I too would like to know this!

NEW USER PRAISE: I just searched for this product, and unbelievably it exists!  Love it so much, I'm such a desktop as my playground person. This helps so much, thank you!   

ERROR: I did get this error several times after installing, and it seemed to correlate when I had Windows Blinds activated and Fences installed then IDK for sure but if Dropbox was still synching/indexing in the background. So, I waited until the indexing was finished and/or quit windows blinds then didn't have a problem after that. So, to be clear both WindowsBlinds and Fences were working fine, until I opened windows explorer while dropbox was indexing and it crashed and went into infinite loop on the error, I had to hard boot several times until I waited until I waited on Dropbox, but then it crashed randomly again, so uninstalled Windows Blinds and it was fine.  Sorry for rambline hope that helps.

I too had dropbox installed, but I disabled it, along with OneDrive (business and personal) and Google drive.  But no joy.  Fences would not install properly and hung Explorer.

I ran the Fences_uninstall bat to clear it all, and selected "Remove Settings" as well and rebooted.

Now interestingly I tried installing it again and although Explorer immediately hung and then restarted, the initial install flash screen appeared to which I selected I would add my own fences, and then the configuration/settings screen popped up.  I don't know why I scrolled down but I did, and I could see that all my previous snapshots were displayed.  If these contain portals or are corrupt, would this be a source of the problem?  Surely an install and remove all settings should remove all these old snapshots?  Where are they saved?  How do they get removed?

They are not removed for a very specific reason - that purges \ reinstall often fix many issues and clients want to return to what they had.  Snapshots provide that.  It is very rare that snapshots become corrupt.  What is more likely is that restoring one (of yours) contains the thing that is causing the problem (be it a folder portal or something else). 

One lead we might have if Folder Portals are the issue is when clients have added non-default columns.  For example:

You are certainly welcome to remove the saved Snapshots:

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

But if you restore them and still have the issue, we could use that as an opportunity to add to our knowledge.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Hi Sean,

I have an update for you and I am not sure if it will be useful or not.......

1.  Removing the old snapshots did not achieve anything.  I installed Fences from the new 'clean' user profile and it was working fine in there, but on reverting back to my normal profile, the problem of Fences/Explorer hanging persisted.

2. I then decided to manually set up my new profile to give me the same apps/folders etc as my troublesome profile.  This included setting up both Personal and Business OneDrive, Google Drive  but I did not set up Dropbox on this profile.  Open Shell and DisplayFusion were also setup and Fences was fine.

3. I then had to switch profiles to look something up  and Fences was still hanging on that profile so I just let it disable itself.

4.  Now the interesting part.....  because I did not want to copy files and folders from my old profile, I used the Windows features to move key system folders like Documents, Pictures, Videos and Desktop and pointed them at my old profile locations.  Fine, everything worked!  Yay!  Fences only but no portals as yet.  Just wanted to make sure it was stable.  BUT, after doing this I rebooted the PC and went into my old profile to check some details, and believe it or not Fences was working fine.  Fences and portals were OK.  No hanging.  Go figure.

I wonder if something like a desktop.ini was corrupt and by pointing my new profile Desktop location to the old location, it re-created this and my old profile was happy with it?

Dunno, but it's strange!

But Happy Days!  Fences running again!!  Yay!

Removed by admin.

Hi 

I purchased fences for the first time yesterday.

I had a lot of icons on my desktop dual 32 inch monitors full up. Initially the program sorted fences but it began to crash as I was introducing fences and moving icons, I had to keep rebooting. I noticed that when I tried to move shortcuts the whole thing would freeze which made me think it kept crashing because of indexing (not sure if what I am saying is right about the indexing). I persevered, did a powershell (admin) sfc /scannow, made sure the fences were not overlapping which did seem to cause a problem and I slowly organised the desktop.

After many hours the whole thing at the moment is working fine with all the fences looking good nicely spaced on 3 separate pages across the dual monitors. 

Really pleased at the moment, thank you.

Update:  The problem has resurfaced and I can definitely tell you what happened to make Fences fall over again.

I have 3 monitors all via display port on an Nvidia GTX1080.  If a monitor is is 'off' with no power to it, Windows seems to think there is no monitor attached at all.  I recall with HDMI or DVI, a turned off monitor would still appear in the display settings - but not with Displayport. 

Today I switched my PC on and had forgotten to turn on my main primary monitor, and as a result the Windows logon screen was on another screen.  So as I logged in via that screen I turned on my main monitor to get to my desktop.  Fences would not load at all.  Looping and freezing Explorer.

I rebooted and logged back in to the 'new' profile I created and installed fences fine.  That too is non-responsive.

It looks like an issue with monitor/desktop real estate and whether windows sees all three monitors or not.  I'd say this is a Fences issue with Displayport monitors not being seen by Windows.

@Malice_UK - I wrote a bit earlier in this thread.  I think you nailed very exactly the problem.  I have 3 monitors, one is a very large TV, almost always turned off.  I hoe Stardock gurus will see that.  It's easy to replicate.

That is a very interesting observation.

I also have 3 screens and have not had issues lately, but I have not turned off any of the screens... Curious. 

@sean Drohan.

Well, I think I have definitive proof as to the cause........

But first a bit of other background context....

If I turned my non-primary monitors on in a different sequence, Fences would place a portal on the 'wrong' screen.  I.E. if a portal was on my right screen of 3, it would then appear on the left screen.  So what I would do would to be to manually move the fences back and take a snapshot (and for the other 'correct' arrangement) so if I could always get the right layout no matter whether the displays were numbered 2-1-3 or 3-1-2 in the display settings.  But you're probably aware that it is quite possible for the monitor numbers to also be in another sequence in the advance display settings under colour management.  A windows 'feature' I believe!!!

As a result there would be many entries (some valid, some not) in the keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Connectivity

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\ScaleFactors

To reset back to default 'install' settings so windows picks re-reads the graphics card ports, you just delete all the above keys and restart.

I did this and indeed windows re-read the displays and all was working fine.  ANd the 'windows' display numbers matched those in the colour management panel too.  Yay!

But.......

My bios screen was showing on my left most screen rather than the middle.  So I swapped the Displayports around to get the display in the centre screen.  Re-boot and hh dear, Fences crashes and freezes explorer.

No matter what I then did I could not get fences to work.  So, I restored a system back from Saturday night that I know was working then.

So when windows opens I find that my 'usual' layout with some fences on one screen are now on another and vice versa.  Ok, I'll use on of my snapshots to get it right.  Restored a snapshot and fences hangs along with Explorer.  Grrrr.  I know, a reboot should sort it!

A reboot and..... Fences still not working.  WTH?

Then it dawned on me..... the new re-positioned leads on displayports would not be the same at the time the backup was done so chances are the registry entries were still mixed up.!  So...

Shut down.  Swapped displayports back to what they were, did another full system restore and everything works now.

So exactly the same restore image - one works with the same monitors connected to the same ports when backed up, but if I swap the display ports leads about, windows finds the 'new' arrangement but Fences hates it.  But of course there is still the difference between the Display numbers for moving the multi displays around....

And what's in the Colour Management settings

I'd say Fences 3 was more forgiving of this than Fences 4.  I suspect that the extra desktops I have (drag right) with additional fences/portals there gives Fence 4 a problem if it tries to adapt to new display numbers.

Does this help Sean?

This is great information, Malice_UK - tyvm for it.

Would you be open to working with us directly on it via MS Team?  I have detailed how we go about that here in the first post:

https://forums.stardock.com/507474/error-fences-has-detected-that-explorer-was-not-closed-properly

That you are in the UK should not pose too much of an issue.

If you are interested, please PM me and Ill send the invite.

Thanks again.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

After reporting and resolving the problem once already (see below), I encountered the problem again today.

1. Cold booted the PC in the morning, powered off for a couple of hours and then restarted.  Problem surfaced immediately on start.
2. MS Windows 10.0.19044.
3. Fences 3 (latest version downloaded from Stardock last Nov).
4. Latest NVIDIA drivers (version 511.65 released 1 Feb 22) were installed yesterday. This is the only significant software change in the last week.  For as long as I can remember, updating the gfx card drivers resets the position of all of Fences (portals and regular) during the installation process.  I must reboot before I can reposition my fences otherwise the effort will be wasted and I'll have to do it again at the next reboot.  I've assumed this was normal and expected.  Am I wrong?
5. No 3rd party multiple monitor support software other than what comes with Windows 10 and the NVIDIA driver software.  I am running 3 screens, though.
6. No Windows Blinds.
7. Right-clicking and selecting "Enable Fences" repeats the failure.
8. sfc /scannow reported some corrupt files which it successfully repaired.  I have no idea which ones or why but the CBS.log file is available for upload if it might be useful.  Enabling Fences after the scan resulted in the same behaviour.
9. fences_debug_info.txt saved but not with extended debug data.  I've since added the registry entries for extended logging but haven't notices anything that I would call extended data.

I will purge Fences 3 and reinstall which might solve the problem as it did last time (I'll report here).  More effort then required to re-establish my portals, rules and UI changes.

I'm loath to upgrade to Fences 4 given the problems reported here.

Edit 1:  Purge and reinstall solved the loading problem but for how long?  Restoring Fence's settings and layout from this morning's backup was successful.  An ObjectDock dock was wiped out in the process and replaced with the generic default dock one gets on first install.

I told you long ago that I did a fresh install of windows on formatted hard drives with almost all new hardware. Your problem is with your program. It screws up first thing on a clean windows install with almost nothing installed.

same problem with Fences.   Goes crazy whenever Microsoft Fine Explorer is on.   Cannot do absolutely anything.   Have to power down to get control of system.    Running Windows 11.   There was no problem with 10.   No need to reply unless you want copy of error window.

I really like Stardock customs.  I use almost every one.    Will be happy when you get your Windows 11 problems fixed.   

Cannot run Adobe LR because cannot click on all of the stuff on top   eg edit.

I've been having this problem with Fences crashing for well over a year now (not sure when exactly it started), could be even longer) and it's been pretty irritating... I've even bought the new version thinking you'd solve the issue by now and it still doesn't work.

I've tried all the suggestions above: I don't use Display Fusion, I don't use Windows Blinds, I tried removing all Fences portals, reinstalling Fences several times and in the end I did a clean Windows install (Win10 x64). None of it helped except the Windows install, then it worked well for a day or so and suddenly (without doing any software updates) it started misbehaving again. It would still work, but it was terribly slow, every time I changed the display scale it would freeze Fences and Windows Explorer for a significant period of time, the same when I plugged in or unplugged a display, as well as simply refreshing desktop or sometimes even trying to double-click hide Fences. I'm using a laptop and I plug/unplug displays often and change scale for external/internal display so that's a significant issue for me. I also use two external displays, one doubling the main laptop display and the second as extended Desktop (I don't know if that makes a difference).

I suspect part of the issue might be with GeForce drivers, since after the last driver update Fences have become almost unusable, it takes a few attempts and a long wait to get them reactivated after they crash. However, it's not solely due to the drivers since it was misbehaving even before that. To be more precise, Fences don't crash on their own, they freeze the entire desktop and then I crash it by constantly clicking on the desktop. If I don't do that it keeps frozen, once left it alone half an hour before I made it crash.

Also, not sure if this is could be helpful or not, after plugging in my two external displays the my entire fences setup which is on the main screen is setup on the extended desktop (and is frozen for several seconds), after that it moves to the screen they should be at. Not sure if this is something due to Windows handling multiple screens or due to Fences. Of course, this was while it worked more-or less properly, now it would just freeze/crash when plugging/unplugging screens... 

For example just now when I activated "show hidden folders" so I could reach AppData it froze for like 10-15 seconds...

Crash Log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/87sqohlrhakk0ja/fences_debug_info.txt?dl=0

EDIT 1: 

Just now I completely uninstalled the nVidia GeForce driver package and it removed the "severe" freezing and crashing problem, it's bareable now but it still doesn't work as it's supposed to. For example, the "show hidden buttons" options in Windows Explorer froze everyithing again for like 10 seconds, when plugging/unplugging displays it still freezes everything for 10-15 seconds (with Fences being on the wrong display during that time). Simply Enabling Fences also freezes Windows Explorer and Fences for a prolonged period of time, duration varies. Changing scale works fine now.

EDIT 2:

Disabled Fences and tried plugging/unplugging, works normal and is completely responsive, so the switching the desktop contents to the wrong display and freezing is definitively due to Fences. Also, forgot to mention, while desktop/Windows Explorer are frozen after plugging in the displays I can normally move and use other applications on both displays and they are displayed on correct displays, the temporary desktop switching is caused only for Desktop and Fences

I use Fences 3.09 and it doesn't crash, functions normally, and can lock Fences which is a "new" feature on Fences 4. Just put your regular key in and don't update. Functions the same.

To be clear, it may or may not be Fences.  If you read the message that Fences puts up, it does not read that Fences itself crashed, rather, that something stopped it from working.

Anything that affects Windows Explorer (Fences runs in its process) will affect Fences.  Changing displays \ scale as often as you seem to would do that with every effort. 

Was NVidia Surround (reads like a sound enhancement but its their version of apps like DisplayFusion) part of that package and enabled?

Disabled Fences or uninstalled?

Thank you for the extensive effort and feedback.  I will make sure the devs see it and report back if they have any suggestions.  

I also want to ask if you can meet the criteria for working with us directly in Microsoft Teams - what we are looking for is detailed in the initial post of this tread:

https://forums.stardock.com/507474/error-fences-has-detected-that-explorer-was-not-closed-properly

If so, please PM me and we can get that started.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

I think i fixed the problem and got the boot up working again it was another application ..I think,. I did try a lot of things over the last 3 hours ,. but when I tried to install Fences again I Have a Expired Licence!! have not been able to use for 3 or 4 months I  can't even install Fences 3

nice  

True... Still, but like I said, I did a clean install and the same issue still persists so there were not a lot of "culprits" other than the core Windows install. 

I mean on most days I plug/unplug displays twice a day, the same with changing the scale. Sometimes more often but it's still not like I'm doing it every few minutes. And while Fences were working properly it was satisfyingly smooth, not instantaneous, but not more than a second.

No, it was the graphics driver. After that I've reinstalled the slightly older version and the crashes and lags are present (like I sad earlier, 10-15 seconds if not even more), but it's bearable if I don't have to move my laptop around too often. 

Disabled. The software itself is not the problem, when I disable Fences everything works well, no crashes and everything is responsive. Even if I disable Fences and leave the Fences application window open everything works well. And as soon as I enable Fences it starts over again.

I've told them about my PC crashing first thing on a clean Windows 10 install with formatting all hard drives. There was only a few pieces of hardware that stayed the same. Like the SSD's and hard drive but they were formatted. They said maybe I should be investing my time into finding the true source of the problem instead of talking about fresh Windows installs. 

So Fences was working for a few weeks.  Rebooted, which enabled windows blinds and fences... and got caught in a massive looping crash where I couldn't even hard shut down any of the apps, I wound up shutting down explorer and having to uninstall  fences and windows blinds.  This was yesterday.

I am using Windows 11 Pro 

Hello,

I have that "Fences has detected that Explorer didn't shut down properly..." error. It happens whenever I create a folder portal of a certain folder and the restart or boot my Win10 laptop. Let me describe in more detail how I can reproduce the error.

After installation of Fences 4 i let Fences auto-create portals. It creates 3 portals. One program portal, one Files & Folder portal and another Folder portal. So far no problem. I want to add 2 folder portals where one folder is the father of the second folder (hierarchically).

As long as I only create the father folder portal I have no problem. I can restart my laptop without any Fence error. Only if I create the son folder portal (regardless of in addition to the father portal or alone) things start to get problematic.

After the creation of the son portal everything looks fine and I can work with fences normally. Only if I restart my laptop the error immediately comes up. Fences are gone from the screen, Icons are visible on the desktop and the error box pops up.

If I click OK I can work normal, bt without Fences. If I try to enable Fences the screen goes black shortly then comes back normal with the error box again.

When I purge Fences and re-install them after reboot everything is fine again. But as soon as I create that son folder portal and restart my laptop I'm back in the situation.

father and son folder are both on my local drive but synchronized with Onedrive for Business.

The father folder contains .pptx files, one .pdf file and the son folder.

The son folder contains .pptx, .xlsx, .pbix and .mmap files.

I have Macrium Reflect Images of my C-drive before and after the appearance of the fences problem. Do you have any interest in these images?