Icons are changing their position within a fence

from Stardock Forums

Hello,

lately I have installed Fences on a new Windows 10 installation and I have problem with it after years of seamless usage on Windows 7. 

Generally icons within a fence change their position uncontrollably in unknown situations - I am using the PC for couple hours or days and then notice icons are in the wrong order. Often even without using those icons (to exclude me dragging them out of order by mistake). That's obviously a big issue ;)

Below I am attaching screens of the fence before and after the mix-up. The resulting order can be different from attached, but usually those are the tops icons that get mixed the most. I have couple other fences hidden when screenshots were taken and they also get mixed up from time to time.

Problem exists on 4k screen with a 150% scaling. Similar settings were used on Windows 7 without issues.

Excluding suggestions I read on the forum:

  • I tried locking fences and it didn't make a difference.
  • I am not using OneDrive or any other syncing app.
  • I am using a single monitor.

Original:

Original

Mixed:

 

Any suggestions on how to solve this?

fences
6,722 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Would like to know more on your system.

  1. Windows 10 version, please use Winver.exe for full Windows version numbers.
  2. Fences version.
  3. What is your setting on "Sort by"

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Basj,

thank you for the reply. Here's the information you requested:

  1. Windows 10 Home version 20H2 compilation 19042.867
  2. Fences version 3.0.9.11
  3. Sort Fence by is set to None
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Please try purge and reinstall steps as mentioned here: https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#reinstalling. Just make sure to re-download the latest version from your account. Reboot after the purged. Reinstall, and Reboot again after the installation. Retest it. Report back here.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Basj,

problem is not solved.

In the meantime I found out that icons get mixed when I alt-tab from a game running fullscreen in lower resolution, so I can do repeated tests easily. Icons got mixed during this both before doing the purge and after. 

I did purge as below:

  1. Run the .bat file
  2. After it finished I was shown two Fences dialogs: "Provide product key" and "Start with Fences" (or similar, I am translating them).
  3. Rebooted
  4. Dialogs were shown again on system boot. Tried reinstalling (installing over existing installation), but it wasn't possible.
  5. Purged again and rebooted, to be safe
  6. Uninstalled Fences and rebooted
  7. Installed Fences, provided the product key when dialogs were shown and rebooted
  8. Ignored the "Start with Fences" dialog shown on system boot, created new Fence and manually ordered icons in it. Locked the Fences.
  9. Run the game and alt-tabed. Icons got mixed immediately.

Any other suggestions? Keeping the icons in order is the main reason I use Fences.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Hey Basj,

I followed instructions from the link you provided.

At first it seemed to work and icons stayed in order when I was alt-tabbing between the game and browser and back, however when after that I quit the game and wanted to write you about it, I alt-tabbed from "show desktop" to the browser working in background, the screen flickered and all the icons mixed up again: those in fences changed their order and those outside of fences moved close to top-left corner of the screen.

Any ideas of what could be causing it? 

I don't know if it is of any help, but after logging into the newly created account, only part of the desktop icons from the previous account were shown.

After writing about I just re-tried running the game and alt-tabbing from it, and again icons mixed up immediately both in Fences and outside of them.

Edit:
The game I am using for tests is Worms Armageddon from Steam, however the issue was present before I had the game installed.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

I have forwarded your report 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.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

Quoting Kogerro, reply 6

those outside of fences moved close to top-left corner of the screen.
End of Kogerro's quote

What is your setting on "Sort by" on Desktop? If it is to something try set it to "None" also and test again.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi, 

my "Sort by" setting was always set to None. 

 

Icons by default move to the top left corner of the screen in Windows whenever screen resolution is changed to a lower one, that can't fit all the icons in their original places. It works like that since Windows 98 if I remember correctly ;-)

It's the reason I started using Fences in the first place - to keep icons in order, not matter what happens.