As we work on the next version of Fences, we are interested in getting your feedback on what you'd like to see.
We are particularly interested in features that will make Fences more useful in your work and enterprise environment.
Please comment below with any ideas and suggestions you might have.
Thanks!
This is my wishlist for v4, based on experience from a minimum of 11 computers I've installed Fences v3 on since Win 10 was released.
1 - Make Fences load faster after login. MS has done a good job of making Win 10 login a seamless experience (not just on a clean install like old Windows versions). Login is really smooth and a usable desktop appears in 1-2 seconds, even after installing many other startup programs. That is until I install Fences. Then it adds an additional 15 seconds where the desktop is completely unusable. It would be nice to see it load quicker or at least for the desktop be usable while it's loading, maybe with an animation or some kind of seamless flow as the fences appear.
2 - Make F5 (refresh) work! On every one of the computers I had there is a 50/50 chance that hitting F5 will freeze the desktop for about 10-15 seconds. If it does freeze there is another 50/50 chance explorer will crash and restart. I need to refresh a lot because more often than not my fences don't update after a new file appears, so I have to refresh to see it.
3 - Allow folder portals to properly display locations on mapped drives. It currently works fine as long as the mapped drive remains available. If it gets disconnected then the desktop regularly freezes while it tries to read the mapped drive and times out.
4 - Detailed icon view for fences. I prefer using detailed view but it's is only available for folder portals. It would be nice to have this as an option for regular fences.
5 - An option to prevent the title bar colour from fading in on mouseover. This is not related to the 'fade in faded fences' setting - it's just the title bar colour gets stronger on mouseover and I would like to disable it so the colour doesn't change on mouseover.
Yeah, I was very disappointed that when you un-roll a fence it is hidden behind other windows. for me it makes fences just about useless. This feature would be great, especially for when fences are docked across the top edge of the screen.
Please read comment 301.
You don't have icons on top of windows with or without Fences....
I get that 'icons above windows' has been requested to death one way or another but I'm sure it's possible. The question is would it step outside the purpose that Fences was designed for, because coding for this would dramatically change its function from 'desktop icon organiser' to an app with Explorer-like functionality that provides a complete desktop replacement.
Fences already does the three main things that would be needed - (1) hides desktop icons, (2) adds additional views (folder portals), (3) knows that specific fences contain specific icons. Only changes to Fences would be needed, not Windows.
All that's needed is
- Hide all desktop icons on load (1), maybe still allow double click to show icons, for emergencies.
- Monitor desktop folder and be aware of changes to icons, which are now hidden.
- Make every fence a separate folder portal window (2) that can independently be displayed behind or in front of other windows.
- If it's a 'desktop fence' then it would still be a folder portal, only shows the icons that have been placed in it (3), always kept behind other windows.
- If it's a normal folder portal then it functions exactly like it does now, always kept behind other windows.
- When a fence is created, allow the user to select Always on Top for docked fences. In this case always keep the window in front.
- If desktop fence or docked fence without Always on Top is clicked then nothing happens, it always stays at the back.
- If docked fence with Always on Top is clicked then it slides down and always stays at the front.
- If Show Desktop is clicked then all windows except fences are minimised.
The main point being to implement the Fences as separate mini Explorer-like windows which would have a z-order, instead of just little containers that shift desktop icons around.
The benefits of doing this are:
A - the view options for every fence could be set to small icons / detailed, which is currently only possible for folder portals. But they would all be folder portals
B - Fences slow load time can be avoided by showing the normal desktop at login, while Fences is loading, and then have some nice transitions as each fence fades in and the respective desktop icons fade out.
If I'm able to code this from scratch then I'm sure it would be very easy for Stardock, with most of the code for the three main requirements having already been written. I don't even use docked fences so who knows why I'm getting involved.
4937 ..... that one's for Sean ...
One word = Yes.
If you understand z-order then you know exactly where Microsoft wants its icons to be, and where every user on the planet expects them to be.
Fences keeps them there at that level, whilst enhancing functionality...AT THAT LEVEL...in accordance with the Explorer shell design.
There are literally hundreds of programs that can have icons arranged to be seen above active windows.... typically any Dock you want to point at...or straight programs which display their own icons as click-points.
Neither of these is a normal Windows Desktop Icon. They are all either entirely different or they are 'copies' of the Normal Desktop Icons.
Fences works with the real ones.
At the level where they are required to be....
Fix the ability to restore a snapshot and have the desktop icons that are not in Fences to be put back to their saved location. I can see it in the snapshot preview but Fences is refusing the put them back.
see my post in the support thread... Fences Refuses to Restore Snapshot on Dual Monitor Setup
Please reboot your PC!
I had the same problem, but If I reboot, it works like before.
Jakob!
Windows Virtual Desktop support.
Desktop 1 opens Fence-Set 1
Desktop 2 opens Fence-Set 2
...
Feature wanted:
• "Add new Fence" Function - from Rightclick Menu on other Fences - somehow this is missing
• Intelligent Edge - if you go with the mouse to the edge of your monitor - the fence(s) should automatically appear - no matter what other windows are in (easy drag & drop files and good handling sometimes etc - even faster and more convinient to use)- Global Hotkey to open fences & open a specific fence individually. (i.e. CTRL+ALT+Y = open Fence with Programs) - also add execptions for (whitelist top100(0) most played games for example)
This would be really useful and save some more time!
Just think of it - go to (left,top,right) edge of the screen from firefox/chrome and open fence with just a mouse move and then just drag&drop the wanted file to and upload field.Or just open the program that you want really fast, without having to go to the desktop first. (i know there are shortcuts for that as well)But this would be a really nice way sometimes to use things convienent.
Ok, hope for us all, that we can count on you and see that Feature then
Thanks for the developement!
best regardsMaxim
I would love to have Icon alignment center and the ability to put a segment line between groups of icons. An aura effect under each group of icons would add a really nice nuance to each fence, and of course the ability to change each aura based on application, game or system task.. To really go a step further, giving the end user the ability to add a mouseover music tone for each aura. Like C for apps and d for games and so on..
Thanks
It would be nice if while using windows explorer's save location function, you could also double click on a portal folder to get to that location. to save a downloaded item.
For instance when printing to pdf earlier today, I wanted to save it to a location that has a portal on my desktop. Rather than being able to see and select the portal via the windows explorers window, I had to instead navigate through the regular directory tree to the actual spot. If I had been just able to click desktop in the shortcut list and then double click the portal location from within that window would save some browsing time.
Note that this is nothing that I think is a major failure on Fences part, but it sure would be cool to see that functionality. I'll keep using fences and likely upgrade to v4 when it comes out either way. Is there a list of new features or a time frame until v4 anywhere?
no blinking on Portal fences will be awesome after so many year ....
- A padding can be good for the fences
- I would like to have custom backgrounds and may be custom colors for the fences
And
- Love to have Tabbed fences (a fence that has multiple fence tabs in it), they can be normal grouping fences or folder portals.
Thank you for the old fences, they were very good and useful.
I don't know if this was suggested, but Integrating the roll-ups on taskbars rolling up so I don't have to minimize any windows to access these fences would be THE best thing.
Once again, Fences works at a GUI level underneath open Windows...active or inactive. Rolled up...or down...or any other form...the Windows will always be on top...
Original post: 1 year 10 months 12 days ago
I don't even know why threads like these are started. Sometimes SD ist like a little kid that loses interest in it's toys after some time.And Fences is advertised as a corporate tool. Way to go 'corporate'. Not.
Oh well.
Please find a way to reduce the CPU cycles Fences consumes. I love Fences, but it slows down boot up SIGNIFICANTLY. Fences is by far the highest load on the CPU for boot up.
This gets requested a lot. Out of curiosity, how would one detail how a 'bring Fences to top' feature would act any different - if at all - to WinKey+D?Sean DrohanStardock Support Manager
https://forums.stardock.com/496875/get;3759984
"I can live with an extra click down in the right-hand corner to hide all windows so that fence titles in the rolled-up fences show.
But for example, it's annoying if I want to release a file or folder. Windows thinks you want to browse to virtual desktop # 2 when you drag files down and then I'm on desktop # 2 and have to drag the cursor across the screen to the left to get back to desktop # 1. Then I can move over to the fence I want to roll up and drop the file or whatever. This is at home on a 27"16: 9 2560x1440p monitor and a lot of dragging down the right and back to the left and then to the fence I want to open. Not even trying to add fences to my tiny 17" second monitor anymore...
But then there is WIN key+D that shows desktop also, great... Or? Not so handy when your holding files/shortcut with one hand and other hand is ocupied with a phone or something. Then Windows seems not to like it every time. Think that may have to do with number of files or type I hold with the mouse doing that. Especially at work where it's a lot of scripts in all kinds of code or files from MAC's or Linux systems.
So at work where I have another Fences license on a 38" 21: 9.3840x1600p it is totally useless to use fences with roll up function that's not on top of everything. Have two small open fences on the left side of the 38" now where I drop links I want to read later and for downloads. But a lot of times I cant see them anyway working with windows-by-windows.
Before I used to at least being able to use the old Rocketdock with folder docklets that opend above all windows, linked to a folder that I then used Fences Folder portal to show in roll up fences placed around the center at bottom of the desktop .But with Rocketdock that is dead now and docklets that became more unstable for every update on Win10, I'm now left with the two hidden fences. And the others at lower center using roll up that I almost never sees.
Trying to organize them on left or right side always ends up with same insane dragging distance, windows blocking or untrusty WIN+D, dragging all the way down to right corner is not happening. Not gona us some insane gamers dpi on the mouse."
I wish to be able to use Portail on terminal server
Roll Up Timeing : to setup latency when hover over the mouse.
So anoying when the mouse goes there and roll up straight away.
Fences messes my wallpapers on windows 10, so id like for fences to not do that.
Id also like it to not switch the fences accross the monitors whenever I reboot my pc and windows initializes a monitor in a different order.
Id also like for it to start sooner, it takes a while after I already have the desktop for fences to show up, and I have a 3700X with an nvme and a 3080.
Windows sometimes dont align, and dont alow for them to be manually aligned either.
Dont allow fences to be on top of each other, and be able to set their priority manually. A lot of times when for some reason fences decides to switch monitors, If I have fences windows on both, theyll clump up in just one of them.
I guess these are the main ones.
If you fix all of these issues I´ll buy the upgrade.
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