I upgraded Fences from 3 to 4 a little while back for Windows 11 support, though I don't feel I got anything out of the deal other than bugs.

...and now they want £20/year or £50 for a one-off payment, just so I can have my desktop slightly tidier and stuff in a little box.

That's literally all Fences is for.  And 4 wasn't that great an experience; I'd update and then get constant update notifications despite already having the update installed.  The background of the fences would be solid black on occasions, or keep moving/resizing.  Grid alignment would be a bit janky and off.

Fences 3 was fine but now it seems to be some kind of weird cash grab.  How on Earth did a simple utility come to this?  It's essentially the same application, with the same functionality.  It organises my mess of a desktop.  One job, that it does really well for the most part.  Why on Earth would I want to pay repeatedly for it?

Please explain me the difference between all your licences options ... and answer to my questions.
I'm really serious, if you are capable to give me good reasons tu upgrade I will consider it... But please, make an effort.

A permanent [lifetime] license to Fences 5 gives you exactly that...a permanent license to Fences 5.

It does not expire...not until you do.

A Subscription license to Fences 5 gives you Fences 5 ...and if you keep subscribing it will give you Fences 6....Fences 7 ad nauseum ....until you cease subscribing.

A subscription is regarded as a LIVE purchase...you keep paying...you keep getting.  If or when you cease the subscription the product ceases to function...in the same way other Subscription software is reliant on an active subscription.

If you choose purchase...it's a one-time thing...and you receive 1 item [with minor point updates/bug fixes].

If you choose subscription you are always up-to-date - no matter what Microsoft might do to interfere with shell enhancements or what new OS versions may come your way....

Object Desktop has always been a Subscription for a large group of Stardock Software...so all are kept current...and with the added feature of early access to Beta versions etc...

I'm a fences 4 owner, just took a look today at fences 5 - very hard to even see where the value is that justifies both the subscription model and increased lifetime cost. I will be staying on F4 and never see any need to move off it. If I do I'll most likely look for other options as this now appears to have priced itself out of the market.

Glad to see I am not the only one who is upset with the new licence methods. 

I dont want yet another subscription based product just so I can have my desktop icons tidy - Like others have said - the old way of licences worked fine and were a good price. 

This new subscription IMO is just a money grab from the dev's 

I have some old versions - guess I will be sticking with these for as long as they work - and if they should ever stop find a new product that does what I need. 

Shame - as the software is good - as for the new licence model. just greed. 

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Update - I have a new work device and was going to now install Fences 4 - which is the last version I have a licence for - but I did what one of the posts above said - search for alternatives and found [removed by moderator]. 

Amazed to find yes it needs a licence - but they allow you to pay what you think is a fair price for the software. Given I am new - I have just removed Fences off my home PC, my personal laptop and now my work device and installed [removed by moderator]. 

I will see how I get on with it over the next month - and then make a payment I feel is fit for the product. 

Wonder how many others have done this and moved away from Stardock? 

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Promoting competitor software is against forum rules. You have more than stated your opinion in the first section of your post. 

Moderator Jan Oscar

Yes, Microsoft is certainly doing that, however the upside is when they actually stop supporting their older OS at all...so you finally don't have to put up with their updates constantly breaking your system.

Certainly, third party program providers are more and more playing chase-up with Microsoft's constant attention to making existing systems obsolete by forcing changes on the user's OS.

Once Microsoft moved from a commercial product to a vehicle for advertising and datamining as their business model it was time to simply avoid pretty much everything post Windows 7.

Hi lucidrenegade, thank you for writing.

Microsoft has been making rapid, significant changes to the operating system's user interface layer and there have been numerous breaking changes. These changes don't generally break the app "in full", but rather, some specific features & integrations have been impacted.

A couple that come to mind:
* "Peek" on Fences 4 for most users will not work with 24H2, as we had to completely rearchitect this feature's mechanism of action.
* The desktop right click menu integration may not behave as expected, as likewise, we had to rework this entirely based on changes from Microsoft.

Otherwise, the core product and most everything in Fences 4 should remain working normally – as we certainly do not plan obsolescence into our products. This would not only be deeply unethical, but also frankly, a bad business decision. 😵‍💫 Happy Fences users generate more happy Fences users. New users via word of mouth are the core of our business model. Something breaking may drive some upgrade sales, but happy Fences users spreading Fences to new customers is much, much-much, much-much-more valuable to us than some small one-time bumps of upgrades at discount, and losing a meaningful segment of users due to cost sensitivity. 

Prior to Microsoft making all of these changes, we've had a very long history of the product working for a very, very long time. And to that point, the core functionality of Fences v2, v3 (well over a decade old) still work with the latest OS today, some glitches aside. ✅ As we've added more and more features over the years it's been a challenge the keep every piece working flawlessly with all the changes Microsoft has been making. But we remain as committed as always to keeping the latest version working with whatever Microsoft throws our way. We appreciate your support and understanding.

The perpetual license price reflects the strong recommendation that users go with the subscription so that they may stay up to date with an ever-changing Windows 11 (in addition to supporting development of new features, fixes, etc). The perpetual is available for users who insist on a perpetual license even if it's going to cost more + with less support. It's an illogical option for sure.

Thanks for confirming you're deliberately giving us the shaft if we don't want yet another subscription for a desktop cleanup, Dr. W.

Good to get it confirmed.  I presumed the buy outright would be higher because the software would have a longer lifecycle.  Kinda like Plex having a lifetime vs subscription.

I've uninstalled it now, I'm not going to play this game.  Granted, it's not an airport etc.

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Have you tried doing the Troubleshooting steps mention in the first post of this thread?: https://forums.stardock.com/528229

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

From what I understand those steps are how you make Fences automatically adjust itself according to the system display count and layout. That is why the instruction need you to repeat the steps multiple time with different monitors count on each steps loop. Once that are all done. Fences should automatically adjust it layout to your display layout.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

If it was a permanent lifetime subscription, I would actually pay $200 or even $300 to have that as long as there would be guarantees that It would never be removed from my account.

I love this Idea and I think Stardock should seriously consider it. 

Anyhow, that's my take.

Going to go ahead and not recommend that.

But yes the pricing model has shifted as both our audience and target/required development cycles have shifted over time. 

The core of most versions of Fences work for many many years (something like 8yrs for Fences 2/3) – so we're very much hoping those old copies continue to work for folks for a long time. We're not hoping for people to be forced to make an upgrade decision because something fundamental has broken. We potentially lose a customer when that happens. We're hoping rather that as we continue to enhance the product year over year, older-version users will finally decide it's worth it to upgrade, because they'll look at the value Fences provides (and not what they paid before) and decide that it's worth it. We have much more to gain as a business over time from that angle, rather than hope that people are *forced* to make a purchase decision based on Windows breaking us.

It's $10 per year not $10 per mo, so the subscription angle is really not as egregious as it seems, as much as I can relate to subscription fatigue. The price of things have changed over time before. Lots of software out there priced all over the map. So yes, it's up to the consumer/business to decide. Thanks for continuing to use the product and glad it's providing you some value. Payment helps to support its continued enhancement in return.