Quoting timurborn, reply 50

The CPU never gets to 100% neither inside nor outside the sandbox. Instead it runs 1 thread/core (out of 32) up to 100% plus some extra load.

100/32 = 3.125% = 1 core fully loaded (at 100% for that one core)

Keep in mind that this load is shared between two virtual cores as Windows keeps shifting the thread back and forth.

*Inside* Sandbox, moving mouse on/off Fence area:





Curiously the WUDFHost is involved inside the Sandbox?!



*Outside* Sandbox, moving mouse over (supposedly) empty desktop:

Look like your issue is unique to your system. Please start a new thread on your issue and we will try to help you from that new thread.

Completely different PC, different CPU, chipset, GPU, software and Windows 10 instead of 11.

Moving mouse on/off Fences:

Moving mouse over empty desktop:

@timurborn, the CPU - does it spike upon mouseover and then go back down? Or does it remain elevated after you've moused away from the Fence group?

For on/off movement on Fences CPU load spikes shortly the very moment the mouse moves on to a Fence of off a Fence. This could either be from empty desktop to Fence, or from Fence to Fence.

In order to produce the pseudo-constant high load I demonstrate in the screenshot you have to keep moving the mouse-pointer on/off the Fences, aka move the mouse in circles.

For movement over the empty desktop the load happens for as long as you move the mouse and then drops back down. On the other PC (via Teamviewer) this load is considerably lower than the Fences on/off load, same for the VM. But on my own non VM PC it's just as high as the Fences on/off load, even more so when a higher mouse-polling rate is used (125 vs. 1000 Hz).

Looks to me like Fences is bombarding Explorer exe with some kind of initialization routine (WinMainCRTStartup)!?

Why isn't Fences 6 offered as a standalone instead of subscription?

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But there is a permanent license offer for Fences. Refer to my screenshot below.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Got the new version and my computer is Windows 11 24H2 (OS Build 26100.4946). The folders and icons are much smaller now and I can't figure out how to make them back to the larger size. I can send a screen grab to the moderator,but didn't want to post it here for everyone to see. 

Try this: put your cursor over the Fence; hold down the control key; and use the scroll wheel to adjust the size of the icons.

Thx for the suggestion, but it doesn't work at all. When I put my cursor over a fence and hold down Control, I get the same pull down menu that I get when NOT holding down Control. I've already tried those settings and couldn't find any way to adjust.

Pull down options:

View

Sort by

Refresh

New

Display Settings

personalize (which does nothing)

Configure Fences

open in terminal

More options...

Do you not see icon size when you select [view] from the pull down options?

Also holding [ctrl] + [scroll wheel up or down] doesn't resize the icons for you?

None of that works. Ctrl and scroll does nothing. 

When I click "view" here's what shows up:

Roll up Fence

Show on all pages

Opacity

Copy color

Edit color

Keep in mind I'm on a PC

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Look like your issue is unique to your system. Please create your own thread so we can help you from there and it does not get confuse with others feedback post. Also, in the new thread please include following information.

1. Fences 6 full version numbers.
2. Repost your Windows 11 version and OS Build number.
3. Post a video or screenshots.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

I am having the same issue with fences crashing.  I am on version 6.02 - Business Edition.  Are there any updates to this issue?

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Look like your issue is unique to your system. Please create your own thread so we can help you from there and it does not get confuse with others feedback post. Also, in the new thread please include following information.

1. Repost your Windows 11 version and OS Build number.
2. Post a video or screenshots.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

(Apologies in advance if this is no longer relevant. I looked here and the more general Fences forum, but couldn't tell.)

POSSIBLE BUG: Background and frame of fences do not show if using BLACK desktop background in Windows 10

Exact Version of Windows: Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.6332)

New or existing issue: New (to me). Just purchased and installed Fences v6, so can't comment on other versions. However, given this thread, looks like an existing issue.

How to reproduce: Easily reproduced. (1) Install Fences with default options and create some fences. (2) In Windows, go to Settings > Personalization > Background. Set Background to "Solid color", choose BLCAK background.

Perhaps Fences could determine if the Windows background is a BLACK solid background and use some other appropriate colors.

Quoting CURTISC, reply 65

(Apologies in advance if this is no longer relevant. I looked here and the more general Fences forum, but couldn't tell.)

POSSIBLE BUG: Background and frame of fences do not show if using BLACK desktop background in Windows 10

Exact Version of Windows: Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.6332)

New or existing issue: New (to me). Just purchased and installed Fences v6, so can't comment on other versions. However, given this thread, looks like an existing issue.

How to reproduce: Easily reproduced. (1) Install Fences with default options and create some fences. (2) In Windows, go to Settings > Personalization > Background. Set Background to "Solid color", choose BLCAK background.



 



Perhaps Fences could determine if the Windows background is a BLACK solid background and use some other appropriate colors.

I believe this is not a bug, rather its a feature request, no? I believe, by default, Fences was design to make its background darker than the wallpaper. So if black is your wallpaper, Fences can not get darker than black.

I have forwarded your request to the Stardock Support Team for their review and recommendations. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We really do appreciate your feedback, Thanks

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

I got an offer for Fences 6 rebate today, but don't see the appeal paying for 6 while 3 is still working and the main issue (high CPU load for desktop/fences mouseover) isn't solved by 6. Good luck, though.

I guess this is a feature request.  current situation is that I have HIDE enabled for all fences. when I have a window open on my desktop and want to see the fences I click on a black part of the screen and they appear, but UNDERNEATH any open windows. I can use PEEK to bring them to the front and this is what I am doing right now. My request is to add an option under the HIDE feature (option) to ALWAYS SHOW FENCES ON TOP.  As they are hidden almost always (hide after 1 second) I don't see them getting in the way of any windows I am working on, but if they did, I can always double click the background and they will hide.  

Thanks for your consideration.

Michael

Hi Tim. The high CPU on mouseover is not a bug, it is the program drawing. (Or rather, is it the desktop drawing, triggered by the mouseover.) CPU use in small bursts in response to user input is normal activity for a software program 

There is animation that occurs on mouseover, and so when you mouse over and out redrawing occurs. The CPU expense will vary from machine to machine particularly depending how many icons you have on your desktop, regardless the size of the redraw area.

I hope this helps clear this up. You may be able to get rid of these small bursts on mouseover by unchecking the option “Fade to full visibility on mouseover”, however these small bursts on mouseover are not sustained / very brief and do not harm your system.

Just upgraded from 4 to 6 (Win 11 Pro, 24H2 26100.7171)

Two straight-up issue, and several bits of meh-functionality (that all share a common theme):

• Issue 1: Fences docked to the top of the screen invert when expanding (title at the bottom); this makes sense for individual Fences, but it doesn't for tabbed fences. But unchecking the Move-to-bottom option doesn't work, requiring a convoluted double move to have apply… the explanation for which does not clearly convey what needs to be done.
• Issue 2: The Icon Tint function applies to Desktop icons that are not in Fences! This goes agaisnt the logic that configuration applies to its own scope: Fences configuration should only apply to Fences, not to icons outside of those Fences. Or at the very least, provide an option to limit the Icon Tint only to Fenced icons. (Even better, per-fence tinting.) … ok, once I got fed up with how this was impacting things and decided to turn it off, the fact that it didn't apply showed me that functionality is available, but it reinforces the next point: the config UI is so completely counter-intuitive as to be more hinderance than help.
• The meh moments: Configuration options are in illogical places. You provide fancy sliders for background colour, then hide 90% of the most useful configuration behind a "More options" link, which is within background Colur, but applies to a whole range of things other than colour. This includes much-needed controls such as title font and all the Chameleon options which are, by default, in the most inconvenient configuration. Indeed, per the above, the Icon Tint, though completely separate in how it is displayed, is actually subservient to the Fence selection within background Colour. Which, eh?!
• Also, a lot of your additional information (Folder Portal help subjects are perfect examples) are displayed in Windows UI Error notifications, including that most annoying of Window features, the Exclamation sound. Why can't they just be in the configuration UI where they belong?

Hi Rick, thanks for the thoughtful feedback.

1) Agreed dock-to-top makes a little less sense on tabbed groups, but, we do keep that behavior for consistency.

We have a new option coming up this month to switch tabs on mouseover. We're considering adding an option for enabling this specifically for docked tab groups, so it comes up to whatever your mouse enters. Likewise, we're introducing options to "Require clicking headerbar to expand", which likewise makes it more accessible, as the roll-out won't occur until you click.

We realize that all of these are somewhat klugey solutions, but we're working to work our way to the best defaults as possible.

Regarding "Unchecking move-to-bottom doesn't work", we weren't able to reproduce this not working – but as you note it seems to be about poor instructions. So we'll take that into consideration as well, and will look to improve that instruction. Our first attempt (below) errors on the side of verbose, but it will at least be more thorough.

From what we can tell it does work once you pull the group off the top and put it back. This is necessary as we don't want to do anything to break your settings just by toggling that setting.

->

2) Regarding tint applying to all icons on desktop. While we agree that this might be odd, in testing we did find a preference for tint applying to all icons, under the idea that tint's benefit is to provide the entire desktop a uniform look, for a distraction-reduction benefit similar to Chameleon but with a user-specified fixed color. We'll continue to consider a checkbox for "Only apply Tint to icons in groups".

It's possible to achieve what you're looking for, but more tedious and with more work. You can turn tint off at the "All groups" level, and then turn it on to match the background color on a per-Fence basis then copy that customization to all the other groups. It should take about a minute to pull this off, and it does make changing the color much more of a headache. Sorry again for the inconvenience and we'll continue to consider improvements here.

3) Agreed, a lot of non-optimum settings UI choices. Again we'll continue to look into improving in the future. The idea was to get that "More option" option "above the fold" rather than down below, requiring scrolling to find. It does result in a weird split. And some of the "More options" options relate to the background color/appearance, and some do not. So yes, continued things to consider there but such is the problem once you have a lot of knobs like we offer. The more knobs, the more confusing it becomes.

4) Agreed, the popups are non-optimum. Again this is somewhere we could improve in the future but for right now is meant for basic onboarding instruction. We provide "do not show again" so that after the first experience with them, one can dismiss and not have to see again. Again noted the room for improvement. While we'd like to get rid of it, we're unfortunately not aware of any reasonable way to disable the "ding".

Thanks for the feedback as we continue to work to improve the product experience long-run

Thanks for the reply.

That more verbose move-to-bottom is a lot better, but I suggest tweaking the first line to indicate "newly placed" fence's titlebars. Without that clarification, and if anyone fails to read the follow-on paragraph, it will appear not to be functioning.

Regarding the "above the fold" argument, I counter with "obfuscation,"

Three suggestions while I am here…

• For normal icons you provide controls to hide shortcut arrows… Can you provide similar functionality to hide sync status checks within Folder Portals (where, for example, the linked folder is within Dropbox's scope or other similar cloud-sync systems)?
• Can we have an option to hide the folder icon on Folder Portals? I know it's a folder; I don't need the reminder.
• Can we have an option to override the name of a Folder Portal? I know the inner logic of the reference will support this as I changed the name of a referenced folder to align with my Fences' capitalisation, but the name on the portal didn't update to reflect the changed folder name. (i.e. You store the folder name separately from the folder reference.)

> indicate "newly placed"

Great suggestion. Adjusted and thank you

> hide sync-status indicators

Good call & agree. We'll put this in our queue for a future version or update.

> hide folder icon option

Not the first request for this and in fact we've had the plumbing for this underway. Just a tap to complete. It won't be in this month's update, but you can expect it in the following update, and we'll have it in beta likely this month. The up icon still comes up when you navigate as to allow you to navigate up, but the folder icon is removed when not navigating. Hopefully this matches your expectations.

> rename folder portal

So to clarify, you can already rename Folder Portal groups. You have to do it while viewing the root folder, but, if you rename it while viewing the root folder, then it will stay renamed even when navigating. (Does this not match what you're seeing / do you expect something else?) Only when the title matches the root folder name does it change when navigating. Weakness– if you only change the case and no other add/removes, this will be overwritten upon navigate. However it may be problematic for us to special-case that, as to the OS these are the same, and we could end up with names getting inadvertently stuck in certain scenarios. 

> "above the fold" / "obfuscation"

Continued agreement. "Why not both?"

Thanks for those updates

On foder portal renaming… how? I'm not seeing any such option. And, indeed, I was only looking to align the capitalisation (in the underlying structure, it's lower case; my fences lead with a cap.) My hacky solution is to rename the actual folder, create the portal, then revert the actual folder name; the portal keeps the name it had when created.

On the fold/obfuscation… It's not the arrangement of config controls within the More options that is the obfuscation; it's the very use of More options. Because the options are inside a click (or two in some cases, with your new structure), how is that any more immediately present than needing to scroll beyond the fold? The two actions have the same functional interaction weight. However, putting it in the clicked menu adds confusion through the label used and cognitive load in parsing the order/structure of items within those dropdowns.