Fences INCREDIBLY slow when dragging or scaling boundaries or dragging complete fences

from Stardock Forums

Since yesterday I started trialing Fences on my Win10 machine (decent HW: Ryzen 3900X, 32GB RAM, RTX3080, newest drivers, 4k Display @60Hz, ...).

I created some fences (some with 20+ icons, some with 2-3), but when I try to scale the borders or drag a fence around, the process becomes VERY laggy. So laggy, that I created a video as it is hard to believe how slow this is, but sadly I only seem to be able to attach images and not even a 2MB shot video.

Well, it is SLOW. It is slow when I only scale and not icon has to be reordered, but as soon as icons have to be moved around or even reordered, the update rate goes down to like 2 Hz.

I like the concept and will order once this is resolved, but as it stands, this is not bearable and using the desktop is even less fun than with a cluttered desktop I had before.

fences
11,226 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. For video you can post a video on Youtube or any file sharing site and link it here.

You would also like to look through this thread for several suggestions to try out. https://forums.stardock.com/490929


Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

I took the drastic measure and completely purged everything again (using the Purge_Fences.bat linked in the other thread) and started from scratch with a fresh installation of the most recent trail I could download from the official site (I could only find 3.0.9.11which as far as I can tell is the version from 2018, but no newer trial versions seem to be available).

In any case, this wiped everything I had configured (so at least he purge worked) and after reboot/reinstall of the 3.0.9.11 I had, everything went back to how it was before -- OK, with the default 3 fences that were auto-created. It is still VERY laggy. I could make it run smoother for some brief period of time when I unchecked all checkboxes under 'Color and appearance' and after that I could scale one fence with say 20 items just fine with a good update rate and smooth animations, but this only worked for approx. 5 seconds and then it returned to the laggy state.

What I can see is that the Exporer process takes 100% CPU of one core when I scale some fence. Is there a way to completely disable the animations? I don't need those smooth transitions and have disabled those for Windows anyway. So I would be fine with if the icons would not start 'lagging around' to reach the new location but snap to the new positions.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

As for the "Disable icon move animation", it should be available in V3.1 which should be entering its beta stage soon.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

After removing/stopping all applications I now finally found the conflicting application: "Windows 10 Firewall Control" by Sphinx Software. As soon as I exit their GUI, the desktop becomes responsive again. This just as a hint for someone else having the same issues.

I think consider getting a license (most likely via Steam as this seems to be the cheaper option for some reason).

If I get a license now, will this also be valid for version 3.1 once this is released or only for the older versions?

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

From what I know. If you buy under V3. It should be valid for all V3.X until it change to V4.X than you will need a new license for that one.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank you. I already made the purchase (via Steam). I could install over the trial with no problem, but it does still show up as unregistered. But as this is not related to this issue I might better either figure this out myself or create a new thread.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I think it best if you do the purge and reinstall steps as mentioned here: https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#reinstalling  Just make sure to follow the Steam steps on this guide.  Retest it. Report back here.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

I did not want to purge everything again and lose the fences I had created so far. But luckily, a normal uninstall/reinstall cycle was sufficient and Fences show up as registered (at least with no reminder of '16 days left' as before.