Error: 'Fences has detected that Explorer was not closed properly'
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.
- Done a purge and reinstall of Fences
https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#reinstalling - Performed an SFC \ Restore health scan:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e
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
