In Windows Event viewer, do you see 'Fences Settings' crashing?

In Windows Event Viewer, do you see Fences crashing?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

To be even franker. Fences3 worked on Win 10, Fences4 worked on windows 10. BUT after a fresh install of windows 10 22H2 Build 19045.2913, Fences4 wont work and constantly says "Enable Fences" at the top of a right click Context menu.

No, it doesn't help to load Fences3 first. Not one thing on the advice pages or threads works.
Having to jump through hoops isn't helping either.
No, I am not new to Stardock Software. I have;

1 x Decor8
1 x active Start8
4 x active Start10
1 x active Start11
2 x active Fences3
... and, if it were a physical product, 1 x dead brick, Fences4

You say thousands of installs, thousands isn't everyone.
SO.. personally, my last resort is to get an older version prior to v4.10.06 before sending in a refund request. Please.

Thanks for reading.

P.s.
As a precaution, before my fresh install, I backed up Fences registry keys. And as a LAST resort, even tried merging them back, that didn't help either.
I'm on my 3rd install of Win10 in two days, because here I was thinking it was me, it isn't.

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I believe your issue is directly link to that mod you've done on Windows 11 context menu. Try undo it and see if it resolve your issue.

Hello,

Please try this workaround: https://forums.stardock.com/518015/get;3886477. Try it and report back.

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Pleased to hear it. So you no longer require a refund, ulysses001?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Cheers.

I offered that information since it might be useful diagnostic information if that's a common element for those of us who are having issues; I wasn't intending it to be the end of the discussion.

As I mentioned, reversing the change, which is supposed to work, isn't... so I need some sort of a workaround, I'm not reinstalling Windows for this.  I'm looking for whatever Fences does when you select the Lock Fences option in the right-click menu so I can't do it manually since the right-click options aren't working; is there a registry entry that changes to lock the fences that I can do manually or something else that I can do?  I don't care about the right-click menu items working, not really, it's the functionality that I care about that I currently don't have.

I have the same problem.  

I have an old Dell, running Fences just fine. (which I am about to decommission)

I now have a BRAND NEW PC, Windows 10 Pro (19045.5371) 22H2, from the exact same Windows install as the DELL (the Dell is 19045.4412), just a different KEY (Not OEM, it's MSDN). I am not wasting my time repeating all those tests that were told to other people WHICH NEVER WORKED (hack this, registry that, sandbox...).

(By the way, this brand new install IS a sandbox, by definition)

This machine is essentially still bare, except that I installed Notepad++ and Open Office, which work.  And I removed TONS of Microsoft crap (OneDrive, office, Cortana, Music, etc...)

Fences WILL NOT WORK.  The "Enable Fences" check box is checked ON THE SETTINGS CONTROL APP, but not on the context menu.  And no fence is ever created.

There are no errors in the Application log, or System log.

The claim "Well, there would be other people having this issue" doesn't fly, as this forum shows there ARE other people having this issue.  Lots of them.

I have a 5 station license key, and this install activated fine, but won't work.  I also tried .NET 3.5 install, and that didn't help.

I write software for a living, and have for decades.  You should know what the other dependencies are BEFORE you release it.  Because this is clearing missing a component.

I need to know what is missing that makes this work, so I can install the dependency myself to get it working, since I paid for it.

-Scott

I've never heard of them.  I said this is a new install.  I used Fences4-fs-setup_sd-4.exe 4.1.0.6

I installed Fences 2 (Fences2_setup_sd.exe - 9.5.1.0) as I still has an old install and key.  (Apparently trying to be honest and use current keys I paid for shot me in the foot.)  It is installed on top of Fences 4, but all the UI said is Fences 2.  Fences 2 installed.  So I configured it.

In response to your reply, I uninstalled Fences 2.  The uninstalled fences 4 (Fences4-fs-setup_sd.exe 5.9.3.0). Then ran some file I got years ago called "Purge_Fences.bat"  (But remember, this is a NEW Windows install, never had any Fences before, so what is there to "purge").

The output, which appears to have failed at every step, is:

C:\Windows\system32>echo off

SUCCESS: The process "explorer.exe" with PID 5824 has been terminated.

'"C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Fences\uninstall.exe"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,operable program or batch file.

ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\Fences not found

ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Stardock\Misc\Fences not found

ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Stardock\Misc\Fences not found

ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Stardock\ObjectDesktop\FencesPro not found

ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Stardock\ObjectDesktop\FencesPro not found

ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Stardock\Misc\Fences2 not found

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Stardock\Fences

    InstalledPath    REG_SZ    C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Fences\

    FirstInstalledDate    REG_SZ    2/9/2025 12:54:33 PM

    FirstInstalledDateTime    REG_QWORD    0x67a8a58a

    InstalledDate    REG_SZ    2/9/2025 3:46:00 PM

    InstalledDateTime    REG_QWORD    0x67a8cdb8

    IsRegistered    REG_DWORD    0x1

The operation completed successfully.

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

Press any key to continue . . .

Then rebooted, and ran the Fences 4 install (9.5.3.0), and it is working.  UNTIL...  I  installed Fences4-fs-setup_sd-4.exe (4.1.0.6) again.  Now the destop is GONE!!!  EVERYTHING.  No Icons, No "My PC" no Network...   Even though the desktop settings are supposed to display them.

So I tried to uninstall it, IT WON'T LEAVE.  I reboot and my desktop is STILL gone.  I ran that Purge, and it's STILL won't show me the desktop.

Looks like I have to BRAIN WIPE my PC to get things back.  Thanks a lot (sarcasm)

Well, I didn't write these myself.  I got them from the web site somewhere, a few years ago.

Pretty annoying when EVERYTHING on my desktop is gone.  Like it's been double clicked to "hide icons", except that wasn't it.  Even a right click wouldn't bring up a menu.

Only the task bar and my chosen background wall paper was present.

My solution:  Uninstall ALL the stuff, run that "Purge_Fences.bat" script I was given 10 years ago, and re-run the 12,990,864 byte one

(the hashes are identical between Fences4-sd-setup.exe and Fences4-fs-setup_sd.exe... whatever the different name is supposed to mean. )

Now, it seems to be working.

Again, it would be nice if developers knew what dependencies their apps need and either provided them, or instructed the user where to fulfill them.

As I said, I got one of those versions working.

However, it spent the next few days nagging me to update.  I finally did yesterday, and it only says I now have version 4.22.  Copyright 2025.  So I can't compare it to what I had before.  Nor do I know if I could reinstall it (licensewise), since this is a new laptop, I might end up having an issue and re-installing the OS, or even replacing it.

I powered down last night (whatever that means in Windows these days, since it's not really a power down, but I didn't hibernate either) , and this morning I boot up, log in, and one of the fence is EMPTY.  All the shortcuts had wandered out of the fence and were hiding under other things. (It was a fence called "Folders" and had shortcuts to folders, obviously).

I had to right clock and pick auto arrange and they all moved to places where I could see them,  The fence was still empty.

The I turned off Auto Arrange, and dragged them back where they belong.

I will see if they stay, but I've had incidents (more often if I leave "Auto arrange" on) that icons slip out of the fence and I have to hunt them down and drag them back.

I wanted a tool that keeps the desktop organized (because Microsoft start menu is garbage), not have to play "farmville" with my PC.

Does my 5 unit license become invalid with fences 5?  Do I have to pay for it again?

Because right now Fences 4 pestered my about updating, but only to the next version 4.  It's not telling me to update to version 5.