Fences 6.58 Release Feedback

Known issues

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***Reserved***

Why do my icons have so much more spacing underneath them? How do I get back the smaller spacing?

EDIT: fixed in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics"

Changed IconVerticalSpacing to "-1100"

Great, glad to hear you have fixed it, but do know there is an option to help with that.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Did try that first, didn't fix my problem though

Interesting, did you reboot after doing that?

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

The desktop icons are positioned far too high, and the boundary between my two monitors is incorrectly aligned, causing some icons to be cut in half.

This issue started unexpectedly in the previous stable release and has persisted for several weeks, although I cannot recall exactly when it first appeared.

I installed the latest beta version hoping it would resolve the problem, but unfortunately, the issue remains unchanged.

I have also tried using the Fix Desktop Icon Spacing feature, but it has had no effect.

Additionally, I submitted another FencesIssueReport today to help with the investigation.

THank you in advance.

Hi Osmar. Thanks for the detailed info.

We're seeing a lot of "last second mis-match. Retrying after delay" in your log, which seems to indicate a brief flickering of a monitor. (Monitor disappearing then reappearing.) We'll take a closer look to see if we can observe what's going on. From the initial look, it looks like \\.\DISPLAY2 coming in and out rapidly (causing the leftmost monitor to become the primary, and then switch back to being left of the primary, as well as flickering between system DPIs of 100<>125). It should work in this situation, but, this sets the baseline for the scenario for us.

Question: I see Grid is enabled. Please take a backup-snapshot so you can restore it after, but, question: if you enable AutoArrange, does the monitor left-edge alignment issue resolve?

To verify as well: do you intend for "Gemini" to be the left monitor, or the right monitor? (I'm guessing left?)

Similar: can you clarify what you mean by "icons are positioned too high"? I'm not sure I see where they are too high. Similarly, if you move the icons lower, do they stay that way?

Lastly: does this happen always, or are there any times this doesn't happen? Such as at time of system startup, after you've re-positioned them correctly? (Assuming it even lets you.) Guessing always this way, and that it won't let you, but, just wondering if you can ever move the icons into the correct desired position.

My guess, based on the facts/queries above: you mean for the "Gemini" icon to fit in the space directly to the right of "Iris BDay", but the desktop's DPI handling is causing the icon to be larger sized due to effectively a ~single-pixel in coordinate overflow, causing the desktop to "make the icons 25% bigger" and thus overflow to the next screen. Likewise guessing, they're shifted over and cut off because that grid thinks it's wider, while still being assigned to the left screen. But, just a guess! We'll have to try to replicate your exact setting. Thanks for help clarifying these questions. We've made some fine tunes to DPI handling in recent months, which could foreseeably cause such a minute overflow if the conditions are *just right*, and yes 1-2 pixels can make a big difference, given a grid that is an exact fit!

[-3840|0|3840|2160|100|\\.\DISPLAY1|\\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0|\\?\DISPLAY#DELA124#5&2750f60b&0&UID8451#{e6f07b5f-ee97-4a90-b076-33f57bf4eaa7}|\Registry\Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e96e-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0007];[0|0|3840|2160|125|\\.\DISPLAY2|\\.\DISPLAY2\Monitor0|\\?\DISPLAY#UGD2716#5&2750f60b&0&UID8449#{e6f07b5f-ee97-4a90-b076-33f57bf4eaa7}|\Registry\Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e96e-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001];

[0|0|3840|2160|100|\\.\DISPLAY1|\\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0|\\?\DISPLAY#DELA124#5&2750f60b&0&UID8451#{e6f07b5f-ee97-4a90-b076-33f57bf4eaa7}|\Registry\Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e96e-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0007];

Hello Dr. W,

Thank you for your detailed reply!

First, don't worry too much about the monitors switching on and off in the logs. I've been testing a Stream Deck button that enables and disables my Elgato Teleprompter, so that's probably what you're seeing.

Regarding the issue, the main problem is that desktop icons positioned near the boundary between my two monitors overlap onto the other screen, sometimes appearing partially cut off. This isn't exclusive to the right monitor; it can happen on either side of the boundary, affecting both monitors.

In the screenshot I shared in my first post, I intentionally moved the icons on the left monitor one position further to the left to make the problem less noticeable. However, if I position those icons closer to the right edge of the left monitor, they start overlapping onto the right monitor.

I've also tested AutoArrange. It does correct the alignment along the left edge of the right monitor, but it also forces the icons on the left monitor to remain aligned to its left side, which isn't practical for the desktop layout I prefer.

I can manually reposition the icons to make everything look correct, but unfortunately, the incorrect positioning returns after restarting Windows.

And to clarify your question, the "Gemini" icon belongs on the right monitor in my screenshot.

I also think your theory about DPI scaling might be spot on!

My left monitor is a 32-inch 4K display, while my right monitor is a 27-inch 4K display. Because of the difference in physical size, I use 125% Windows scaling on the 27-inch monitor to keep text and interface elements comfortably readable.

I just tested changing the scaling to 100%, and the icon alignment problem immediately disappeared!

Unfortunately, keeping that monitor at 100% isn't a practical solution for me, as everything becomes too small and uncomfortable to read.

Hopefully, this helps narrow down the cause. It certainly seems that the issue is related to how Fences handles icon positioning across monitors with different DPI scaling settings.

It's also worth mentioning that my right monitor is a 120Hz drawing tablet display, in case that detail is relevant to your investigation.

Actually, the vertical positioning of the desktop icons is correct, so there doesn't appear to be an issue with their height after all.

Thanks again for taking the time to investigate this! 

THanks again.

Title: Fences removes registry context-menu items (e.g. "Play with MPC-HC") from some desktop files.  I first uncovered this trying to shred some files with a shredder app that usually hooks into the right-click context menu.  Oddly, it did not appear for certain folders, extensions, for no discernable reason.

I'm fairly certain this was on prior v6 Fences, I only uncovered this after some guided troubleshooting.

Fences version: 6.58
OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2, build 19045.7663 (64-bit)

Summary
With Fences running, right-clicking certain files on the desktop shows a menu
missing every item that comes from registry verbs (HKCR\...\shell entries).
Items from shell extensions still show. Disabling Fences, or right-clicking
the same file in a regular Explorer folder, shows the full menu.

Steps to reproduce
1. Run Fences with default desktop handling.
2. Put an .mp4 file on the desktop (my default player is MPC-HC).
3. Right-click the file.

Expected
The full context menu, including registry verbs, as shown in Explorer:
Play with MPC-HC, Add to MPC-HC Playlist, MediaInfo, Edit with Notepad++,
Run as administrator, and "Shred Securely" (Secure Shredder), plus the
normal shell-extension items.

Actual
Every registry-based item is missing. The menu starts at "Cast to Device",
and "Open with" is shown in bold as the default action. Only
shell-extension items appear (Cast to Device, 7-Zip, Defender, Fences'
"Exclude this icon from Fences quick-hide", Share, Open with, Give access to,
PowerToys items, Send to, etc.).

What I checked
- Same .mp4 in Documents (normal Explorer window): full menu appears.
- Same .mp4 on desktop with Fences turned off: full menu appears.
- Same file renamed to .txt on the desktop with Fences on: registry items appear.
So it depends on file type, not on the individual file.
- The registry entries are intact, with no LegacyDisable, Extended,
ProgrammaticAccessOnly or AppliesTo values on the affected verbs, and no
blocked shell extensions.
- The same problem appears on some desktop folders and some folder
shortcuts/portals, but not all.

Affected verbs come from these standard locations:
HKCR\*\shell\...
HKCR\Directory\shell\...
HKCR\SystemFileAssociations\.mp4\Shell\...
HKCR\<file type's ProgID>\shell\...

Screenshots: 
Fences on:


Fences off:

Looking at those 2 results of rightclick the implication is a direct issue with Fences and the 'MPC-HC' proggy.

I'm pretty sure the boffins will find what's going on there...;)

If you look closely, it's more than just MPC-HC.

Both the MediaInfo and Shred Securely app options are sidelined by Fences.  I suspect Fences interferes with registry based context menus in some fashion. 

@Osmar. I believe you have identified a shortcoming that has existed for several years. Complimentary licenses on the way!

We've been evolving our system metrics detection over the years to handle a variety of technical scenarios and OS editions. Looks like in building our "leftover space" computation with the enhanced system, we neglected the idea that different monitors are going to have different "leftover spacing", that is, the leftover divisor of the screen width and icon size. Icon size otherwise in general scales with DPI in exactly in multi-DPI systems, but, not that component. We'll have to figure it out. Haven't yet pulled up this exact scenario to repro, but I'm very hopeful if not confident we'll be able to. Team is on other matters right now but will be on this. Thank you and we'll report back more!

@stardockway we'll see if we can reproduce this somehow. Looks like a compatibility issue with one of the other shell enhancements and unclear which is at fault. The classic context menu was known for these kind of finicky-conflict things hence them redoing the system in full for Win11. It doesn't interfere at the registry layer, but, apps can conflict at the IContextMenu layer. We'll see what's going on.