Stardock Forums
With the Fences 4.10.06 release, we are creating this thread so that users can report any observed issues.
Thank you for your interest and any time you put into making Fences a better product.
Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager
Is that Windows 10 (looks like 11)? But what are you using that seems like is modifying your context menu?
Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst
It is windows 11. Adding shortcut to context menu does not affect fences
That is not the Windows 11 context menu
Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst
Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager
It works!
Glad to hear it! Thanks for reporting back
Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst
With what program?
Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst
In the past all of the desktop folders would occasionally vanish and double clicking on a blank screen never did bring them back. I always had to reboot. I am running an fully updated Windows 10 system. Today I updated to version 4.10 and most folders keep vanishing. I really want to keep the software as I do like it but I also wish it worked. I do not want to reboot all day long. Please fix the software......
Windows 22H2 (OS build 19045.2604) Win10PRO
If something is broken with Fences, we do...
How often is 'occasionally'? Does a restart of Windows Explorer resolve this issue?
On their own or the result of you using the Fences quick-hide feature?
If you are inadvertently invoking it, turn it off.
Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager
You don't need a program to change back to legacy menu, it's all done within windows.
cheers
I can confirm opening the Fences options doesn't work when calling it from the Legacy Context Menu in Windows 11.
Restore to the actual Windows11 context menus
Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst
No offense but why? It was clearly working before also with the legacy or third-party context menus and it still works now by calling it from the Start Menu so Fences must have broken something in the updates :/
No offense but why? It was clearly working before also with the legacy or third-party context menus and it still works now by calling it from the Start Menu so Fences must have broken something in the updates :/
It was an effort to test - to see if restoring how Windows 11 was meant to render such things works.
We are still looking into it but, if it works for you, that would be the current workaround for people that have manually altered how such menus appear in Windows 11.
Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager
Thank you! Fences4_4.1.1.0-j110-Setup.exe fixed my broken UI problem.
fyi... I'm on Win10 current build.
Windows 11 22H2 update KB5023706.
Fences 4.1.0.6 and 4.1.1.1 causes Windows Explorer to crash on startup. Initially Fences displays a message dialog saying that it has disabled itself because of an Explorer problem, but the dialog disappears quickly as Explorer continues to crash in a never ending loop. The desktop does not get displayed and I cannot get control!
The only fix has been to restore my System Drive from backup and then immediately pausing Windows Updates to stop KB5023706 from being downloaded and installed.
The Windows release notes for KB5023506 do mention this possible behavior for UI modifying apps. Is this the issue here?
"March 14, 2023 - KB5023706 (OS Build 22621.1413)
After installing this or later updates, Windows devices with some third-party UI customization apps might not start up. These third-party apps might cause errors with explorer.exe that might repeat multiple times in a loop. The known affected third-party UI customization apps are ExplorerPatcher and StartAllBack. These types of apps often use unsupported methods to achieve their customization and as a result can have unintended results on your Windows device.
We recommend uninstalling any third-party UI customization app before installing this or later updates to prevent this issue. If your Windows device is already experiencing this issue, you might need to contact customer support for the developer of the app you are using. If you are using StartAllBack, you might be able to prevent this issue by updating to the latest version (v3.5.6 or later).
We are presently investigating and will provide more information when it is available."
I would like to continue using Fences 4, but this does not bode well.
OOPS, sorry guys, but this turned out to be my own fault. I was using a Registry change to re-enable the older File Explorer Ribbon, and this did not play nicely with the updated version of Explorer in KB5023706. Once I edited the Registry 'Shell' entry back to default the update applied and ran correctly. No issue with Fences.
I'm also having the issue where I can't open the configuration dialog from the context menu. Opening it from the start menu does work, but I need to unlock them to make a change. There's no option for that in the config dialog that I can find. Also, none of the fences-related options work, such as locking/unlocking them. Doing a full uninstall and reinstall with the 4.1.1.0 build from this thread doesn't fix it. I don't have a user language set either. Running Windows 11 22H2 (Build 22621.1413).
The fences sometimes randomly move by one or two pixels horizontally upon reboot, and even shrink by a pixel or two sometimes. This happens with them snapped to the top of the screen and rolled up, and the sizing is set to snap to multiples of icon size in the settings. All of the exclusive fullscreen games and apps I use run at the same resolution as the desktop, so in theory that shouldn't be the problem. The layout only messes up on reboots anyway.
Its pretty annoying to have to keep fixing them every few days.
Fences.exe details:
This is the layout problem in action (What I'm trying to unlock the fences to fix):
EDIT: I was able to get them unlocked by doing a manual registry edit and then using Start11 to force an explorer restart. I guess that's another potential workaround for not being able to use the context menus for now.
Still can't load Fences configuration from the context menu in Windows 11. I sent debug info by e-mail yesterday.
Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But, If you have issue with Fences, please give us more details on your issue. Refer here as a guide: https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1387954197/Contacting+Stardock+About+Fences+Issues
Thank you.
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.
For everyone who cannot "open Fences"
We are working to get this fixed for you!
Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst
Yes - this is where the issue is. It hadn't dawned on me that using the legacy menu would make a difference there. Hopefully, Fences can be made to work with the legacy menu as it gives me much faster access to the many tools I use on my system.
Hi,
I have also encountered the same problem.
Even though I have tried deleting the registry and installing the new version 4.1.1.0, the problem still persists.
Screen Video recording: https://we.tl/t-51YdtGwFla
Yes - this is where the issue is. It hadn't dawned on me that using the legacy menu would make a difference there. Hopefully, Fences can be made to work with the legacy menu as it gives me much faster access to the many tools I use on my system.
Thanks for confirming! We are looking into the issue, for the time being, in theory the legacy menu is still there, it the "show more options" selection at the bottom of the current context menu.
Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst
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