With the Fences 4.0.7.01 beta release today, we are creating this thread so that users can report any observed issues.
Obtaining the beta:
Object Desktop members can get the beta from within Object Desktop Manager with 'show beta downloads' enabled:
Individual purchases (as well as Object Desktop Members) can also be obtained from your account page:
https://store.stardock.com/myaccount/products
For anyone wanting to test via a 30-day trial, they can get the installer from here:
https://cdn.stardock.us/downloads/public/software/fences/Fences4_4.07.01-j95-Setup.exe
Reporting an issue:
Please include the following for anything found:
Thank you for your interest and any time you put into making Fences a better product.
Hello,
We can't get it working again for you without your help. It seems like there is potentially a conflict with another program you have installed. Would you be willing to try some troubleshooting steps?
Paul ScrogginsAssociate Technical Support Analyst
Edit: the folder names start with a backtick (`). That doesn't show in the titles. I wonder if they are getting disassociated from the folder somehow.
Also, right now the WIN+SPACE shortcut or WIN+D (remapped) does nothing.
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Fences doesn't draw correctly most of the time for me. Sometimes it does, like if I create a new fence. Note that I blurred the names of most of the folders for privacy.
This happened with the beta as well as the official release.
All of these folders are in Details view.
Also, when they do show the files, the WIN+SPACE shortcut only brings the text on top of other apps, not the whole fence, basically defeating the purpose (text superimposed on top of your apps is hard to read).
Any ideas?
FYI: I paid for an upgrade to 4 and installed the beta: No problems since
Would you be willing to try some troubleshooting steps?
Hi Paul,
Sure!
What would you like me to provide you with?
Cheers,
DueWest
Hi again Paul,
I had a thought about my setup and wondering if it could be impacting Fences...
I use Microsoft 365 and have my desktop contents syncing to OneDrive for Business. Would that affect how Fences interacts with the desktop?
Yes, that would be it. Please refer to this report from other and what Support said about it : https://forums.stardock.com/501085/
Thank you,
Basj,Stardock Community Assistant
2 things:
1) probably related to the new allow navigation even if 'open in new process' is enabled -- i've noticed recently that PDF files are for some reason treated as folders if a) i have folders set to open new process and i have allow navigation enabled in a folder portal. it's weird. with those two features on, if i double click a pdf, instead of opening the file it 'opens' in fences (except it's just a big blank fence instead of a preview of the file. so far, i've only noticed it with pdfs. other file types work fine. If i disable 'allow navigation' from within fences or 'open folders in separate process' (or both) -- pdfs open upon double click as expected
2) when explorer crashes and i get the 'fences was temporarily disabled...' notification -- i often get stuck in an endless cycle of explorer restarting and getting that message. i often have to do a hard power off of my computer to get out of it. and sometimes, as just happened now, i have to fully reinstall fences to be able to reenable it again after such a crash. i mean i know the answer is to disable fences before restarting explorer...and i do so when i can, but that's not always an option.
thanks for a great product!
And you see that with the current beta, 4.0.5.11, or that is your experience with past versions?
Sean DrohanStardock Product Lifecycle Manager
current beta. in fact, i don't know that i've had this issue much at all on prior versions. seems like it has suddenly happened a few times in the last several weeks. i've periodically had to reboot to get fences working again but that's not an issue. but this whole cycle of explorer restarts and sometimes needing tk reinstall fences is a newer development
Hi Basj,
Just as a follow-up... I thought I'd try something left field and have not disabled my OneDrive-For-Business Desktop sync because Fences was working for ages with that enabled prior to W11 updates several months ago.
I use an HP Spectre Notebook with Intel Iris Plus graphics attached to an HP dock with 2x monitors attached to that.
HP only support W10 on the Spectre even though it runs W11 happily for most of the time.
I noticed that Explorer.exe was crashing through kernelbase.dll even with Fences uninstalled, so I went to Intel's site and downloaded the latest Iris Plus graphics and audio drivers and rebooted. Lo' and behold - Fences (Production version) now installs and is running!
Thought this might help anyone else in the same boat.
Hi DueWest,
Thank you very much for this information. It will most definitely be a handy option for others to try and we can pass it along to them if we see a similar issue.
Thanks again!
Hello all,
The beta has been updated to Fences 4.05.21. Please see the edited changelog at the beginning fo the thread.
As always, thanks for your feedback.
Hi,
Can you update the link for download the last beta version 4.0.5.21
Thanks
Regards,
DBX
Done.
When I go to configure Fences 4.0.5.21, the configuration window loads into the upper left corner of my screen, partially *under* my top-positioned Start11 taskbar. This happens on both Windows 10 and 11. It used to load in the usual unfixed way new windows load, somewhere in the middle of the screen.
I was able to reproduce this - if this is indeed what you are referring to:
https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/2022-07-01_10-46-55sdrohan.mp4
It really should remember its last closed position... I have created a ticket to have it looked at.
Internal ref: FEN-140
Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, that is what's happening on my systems. Thank you for looking into a fix.
I was hopeful that the new beta might fix a bug that has been in Fences since version 3 (one of the only reasons I paid to update to version 4, which still has the bug). Every time I update my video card drivers, I have to reboot my system because Fences forgets how to display its fences at full resolution. You can see before and after desktop screenshots here in an Imgur post. I've got a "sidebar" with Rainmeter and Tweetz, and my icon fences mostly around the edges of the rest of the screen. Everything downscales during a driver update, instead of remaining at (or restoring) the full screen resolution of 2560x1440. It looks like Fences thinks the new screen resolution is somewhere around 1920x1200.
This is fixed immediately after a reboot, but that shouldn't be necessary.
I'm using Fences 4.0.5.21 in Windows 10 x64 Professional, Version 10.0.19044.1766
Ive got version 4.0.5.21 running on Windows 11 and am still getting the Explorer issue repeatedly
Please see:
https://forums.stardock.com/507474/error-fences-has-detected-that-explorer-was-not-closed-properly
I'd like to second the comment on the fact that fences is now trying to open certain documents directly in the portal fence, pdfs in particular. This does weird things to the fence and stops the back button working, so there needs to be a way to stop it, and just do folder traversal.
Sorry to hear you are having trouble.
Can you post a video of this - a link to one where you have uploaded it to a share cloud service?
All subdirectories are not displayed when following the directory inside the fence with win+D.
When I access the directory inside the fence while pressing win+space, no subdirectories are displayed. In the product version fenc4, subdirectories are displayed stably.
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