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With the Fences 6.20 release today, we are creating this thread so that users can report any observed issues.
Known issues
While we appreciate all feedback, please remember that we offer no official support for beta \ preview \ developer channel versions of Windows. If you report issues while in any of those early release channels, you should not expect them to be addressed unless it still exists in a retail version of Windows.
After update to version 6.2 fence positions do not stay in place between reboots. The fences are there with their icons, however instead of being laid out correctly, they have moved and some are overlapping. This was not happening before update. I have the Backup Layout Set in the Layout section, however I needed to do it manually. Windows 11 most current release available.
Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Need to know your setting on this one.
Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.
Perhaps something was not properly installed. Please try purge and reinstall steps as mention here : [Link]. Just make sure to redownload the latest version from your account page. Reboot after the purge. Reinstall and reboot again after the installation. Retest and report back here.
Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.
Hi, please also try clicking “do not preserve” option and then switching back to “store on per monitor basis”. This has helped some.
If this doesn’t help we’re happy to work to diagnose more.
Unfortunately none of these suggestions have solved the problem. I setup my display exactly the way I want it (which has always worked in prior versions) I even save it as a backup. The next day after booting up in the morning, the fences are overlapping and not sized appropriately as done the previous day.
Hi, I'm running 6.2 Fences and the desktop freezes up after I've played a game. I have to reboot my PC to get it to work again.
Win Ver 11 25H2 - OS build 26200.7462
Hi crookher, a couple steps to try and diagnose this. The first series includes creating a log file and submitting.
Please do the following
(1) Go to About, Troubleshooting, and click "Enable advanced logging". Reboot so that the setting can take effect.
(2) After rebooting, modify your layout as desired.
(3) Take a backup snapshot from the Layouts tab. (Ideally, click on the snapshot and rename it "Before reboot")
(4) Reboot, to reproduce the issue. Upon rebooting, confirm that the issue occurred.
(5) Take another backup snapshot from the Layouts tab. (Ideally, click on the snapshot and rename it to "After reboot")
(6) Go to About, Troubleshooting, and click "Create error report package". Be sure to include your username and upload per directions.
The team can take a look at hopefully figure out what's going on. Thanks for your help.
Hello,
First, and most immmediately, I have the same problem. I have seven screens. The Fences are all in the correct places but the icons were all overlapping on my "Startup" page. As far as I could make out, they were in the positions that previously they had occupied on their separate pages. This has been the case for two days. When, today, I tried reverting to a backup the icons/links that I had created in the past week all appeared in their appropriate locations but everything else was clustered at the bottom right of the "Startup" page.
I seem to recall that I had responded to an invitation to update something Stardock but I cannot now recall whether it was "Fences" or "Start11". Certainly, my systematic ordering of programs on the taskbar had been jumbled up.
In the past, this overlap issue has occurred briefly on some boots but has then sorted itself out within 20 seconds or so.
If there is no 'magic wand' solution, to reposition hundreds of icons is going to consume a lot of valuable time.
Second, I have been meaning to raise the issue that it looks to me that what gets backed up is only the startup page, not any other pages that have been created.
Third, having been precipitated into contacting you because of the first and really serious problem I'll also take the opportunity to raise the matter of another, more minor, annoyance. I'm running a fast machine but there is a noticeable delay between the creation of a link and its appearance. When it does appear it can be recalcitrant in that it cannot always be made to move with the mouse to where I want it to be located. Also, once moved to the desired location for a while it retains attention in the form of the marker around the icon and cannot always be made to drop it simply by clicking elsewhere.
I use "Fences", "Start" and "Groupy" on a daily basis and they are fundamental to how I organise my research and how I write. The sort of customisation that they make possible is essential for anyone who aims to be efficient in their research. By far the most important of these is "Fences", but sometimes it can be rather flakey. I've lived with this, but the first of the problems that I report here goes beyond `flakey'.
Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Look like this one is uniquely to your system. It is best if you can create your own new thread. This will improve on how we can help you in resolving your issues.
Also, please include these details when post.
Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.
Hi Norwicensis, we'd like to take a look.
If you could follow the instructions in the post above, it should give our team the information to figure it out. Be sure to rename the one snapshot to "This is the layout the way I want it" etc etc, then do whatever causes it to break, and then take a snapshot again right after, renaming it to "broken". Upload this to us using the instructions above and we'd love to get it resolved.
Thanks for your help
Hi Norwicensis, crookher,
Just circling back. We would look forward to diagnosing this issue with you. We get pretty few of these issues given the size of the userbase so when we see folks with an issue, we like to stay on top of it as to figure out it out for the users who might be having this problem.
I updated to 6.20 recently, I have windows 11. It looks like Fences might be causing "do not disturb" to be turned on.
This happens when I minimize everything and can see the desktop.
If I open another window, "do not disturb" will turn off.
If I uncheck "When using an app in full-screen mode (priority notification banners are also hidden) in the windows notification settings this doesn't happen.
So not that big of a deal since there is a workaround. Otherwise, very happy with the app.
Even after making a log file and submitting it, there has been no solution. My fences still do not stay exactly in place as they did before updating to 6.2. To mitigate the problem, I reduced the number of fences by closing one that was setup as a file portal to multiple folders. This reduced the number of fences that I have to 4 and reduced clutter. After doing that, the remaining fences are 4 and although they do move slightly from where I place them, it is acceptable until the next program update occurs.
Ah that's right crhooker thank you for the reminder.
Yes this was right before the holiday! Word got dropped as result.
We'll circle back on Monday when the team is back. Good news, this got resolved. We were able to see precisely what was going wrong, and there was a minor bit of layout scoring that was off with your specific scenario.
=====
Fun technical facts, issue had to do with that the two layouts that were valid were these two single monitor layouts:
And when adjusting from
It was getting distracted by the fact that this resolution combo had once been seen before, and by random order, it was showing up later and overwriting the logic.
It shouldn't have been getting confused there, but it was. The result was that the single monitor "1:[3440x1440@125]+" layout kept loading & scaling/transforming, inappropriately, whereas "1:[3840x2160@150]+" should have been loading, which was the single-monitor config that had all the icons on it for "2:[3840x2160@150]+[3440x1440@125]", which was the configuration to which you were switching.
Anyway yes this is some of the minute last-mile stuff we've been taking care of with the help of reports like this. Pretty soon there will be nothing left in terms of logic gaps, fingers crossed. We'll circle back on Monday to see if we can get you a build to use/test, which we'll be pushing out to beta. Thanks for your patience.
@crhooker, new build is ready. It'll be out in beta coming up, but in the meantime you can get it below:
v6.22 (6.2.2.1). Based on our replay of your debug log, this should fix things up. Fingers crossed. Thanks again for your help tracking down.
@Norwicensis, worth a shot trying this build for you as well. If you still see the issue, please follow the debug steps above and our team will take a look. Thanks again
Thank you, have downloaded and installed. Will monitor for problems
Well it's been about 48 hours since I installed the update that you gave me the link to and it seems to have solved the problem that I was having. Thank you for being so responsive to solving the problem. Great customer service!
In Fences 6.20, the "Show Fences" (in Peek settings) hotkey Win+Control+Shift does not work, while other hotkeys function as expected. After several tests, I found that this hotkey option (labeled as Win+Control+Shift) was incorrectly mapped to Win+Control+Shift+D. Just wanted to flag this bug for the dev team — hope it gets resolved soon😊
Potentially Useful Info:
Environment:
Sorry for the delay. I have submitted the generated error package to the designated Dropbox. Hope this helps.
Details:
Fences hides classic desktop context menu Shell items (registry entries still present)
Hello,
I’m encountering a reproducible issue with Fences that I have now seen on two different systems (previously on a server, and now on this PC).
When Fences is installed and enabled, classic desktop context menu items registered under the Shell key are no longer visible, while ShellEx-based items continue to appear normally.
To be clear:
👉 The Shell entries are NOT removed from the registry — they are still present — but they are not shown in the context menu.
Entries underHKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\
still exist in the registry, unchanged
However, they do not appear in the classic desktop context menu
Entries underHKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\
continue to work and display as expected
This affects the classic context menu (where Shell entries exist), while the modern Windows 11 menu using ShellEx appears unaffected.
I have attached before and after screenshots that clearly show:
All Shell-based desktop context menu items visible before Fences is enabled
Example:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\shell\AllaTextEditors
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.ps1\Shell\run_edit
The same items missing from the menu after Fences is active, despite still existing in the registry
The behavior changes immediately when Fences is enabled/disabled
This is not caused by Windows updates
The issue is reproducible
The same behavior previously occurred on another system
These Shell-based menu items are intentional and critical to my workflow
From a technical perspective, it appears that Fences is either:
Suppressing or filtering non-ShellEx context menu handlers, or
Interfering with how Explorer builds or displays the classic desktop context menu
This effectively makes all Shell-based desktop context menu extensions unusable while Fences is active.
Please let me know:
Whether this is a known limitation or bug
If there is a setting, exclusion, or workaround
Or if additional diagnostics (logs, registry exports, test builds) would be helpful
Best regards,
Viktor Horvat
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