Testing the beta

Philly0381

Join Date 11/2004

+844

Testing the beta

Whoops, didn't even figure that I would be the first post.

Had no problem downloading and getting Fences to open.

Menus look very nice and clean, informative with just enough info.

No problems with moving the Fences around or resizing them.

I was at a slight disadventage since I don't have a desktop with lots or even a few icons. Lets see there is the trash bin and then the Fences icon and, that's it.

I did notice that it doesn't play nice with a couple of programs, Stardock Virtual Desktop, woundn't show the different wallpapers by desktop (cleared up with uninstalling). Right Click doen't show the options for Fences. Not sure if there are others.

Unless I just couldn't see it, it saw no way to close or shut down Fences.

Understanding that this is a side project, what is the estimated time for the beta and when will updates be issued?

I can see how this would or could be usefull to what you might call power users, programmers/developers or possibly even skinners. Some my say you could use ObjectDock Plus for this also. I think though the agrument could me made that ObjectDock Plus would be for more permanent items while Fences would be utilized for the short term projects that people would be working on.

Now comes the question if I would use Fences, probably not, but that does not mean that it doesn't have the potential to become a popular desktop management tool.

Looking forward to reading others comments.

fences

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i would love to have a go

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I've noticed that when fences is running, I can't apply wallpapers by rightclicking on them and hitting Set as Destop Background. In detail:

I can right right click on it

I can select Set as Desktop Background

It does not set it and rightclicking on the desktop and hitting refresh doesn't help.

If I rightclick on the desktop and select Properties and then the Desktop tab, the recently selected wallpaper is the one showing in the computer window, but the previous wallpaper is the one showing on the desktop. When I click Browse, it takes me right to the folder that the wallpaper I want is in, and I can select it and then apply it.

Major problem? I don't think so, but it is a bit annoying, especially when trying to find the right wall for a particular theme. Just thought I'd mention it.

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I've noticed that when fences is running, I can't apply wallpapers by rightclicking on them and hitting Set as Destop Background

For what it's worth, setting wallpaper this way in Vista loads a poorer quality image.

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For what it's worth, setting wallpaper this way in Vista loads a poorer quality image.

Yeah, I found that out. I should have stated I'm in XP.

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messiah - noted, thank you i'll check that out.

yeah i have to do special stuff to handle the background in XP that i don't have to do in Vista. the net result is nicer quality in desktop rendering, but, yeah i have to do work to make sure i stay in sync. thanks again

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messiah - noted, thank you i'll check that out.

yeah i have to do special stuff to handle the background in XP that i don't have to do in Vista. the net result is nicer quality in desktop rendering, but, yeah i have to do work to make sure i stay in sync. thanks again

np, glad to be of some help. thanks again.

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Um... I am having a few problems. With WB (Windows Blinds) I am having trouble with scroll bars. The bottom scroll arrow reproduces itself in a line as I move a fence on my desktop. Also not all shortcuts can be "fenced". The main one is empty folders. This is not a real problem it is just somewhat annoying (not that many people keep empty folders on their desktops) By the way this program gets 5 stars!

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CAn you post a screenshot?

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The Problem Sorry I had to blank out the icons. They belong to Apple.

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Hmm .. I'm not seeing that

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any updates???

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Quoting canmandeco,

reply 13

Although I did install the Fences beta last night, I didn't have a lot of time to play with it. What I did notice was that I couldn't get the Fences to recolor. I could make it lighter or darker but the hue and saturation sliders didn't work for me. I will take a better look at it tonight, maybe I was missing something.

...

Try sliding Hue, Saturation and Brightness; worked for me...

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Confirmed that "Set as Desktop Background" does not work on XP. That one's a Microsoft bug but i'm going to try to find a workaround. As a program setting the wallpaper, you're supposed to send out a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message when you make such a change. Windows in this case does not. Will work around.

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I have been testing fences for a few weeks now... so long no real problems at all... I have WindowsBlinds. ObjectDock Plus, IconPackager & Deskscapes all running fine side-by-side with fences. I have not experienced any noticeable problems at all.

The only "issue" I would say is that I would not be able to shorten the fence from the bottom (past the last icon in the fence)... it is not such a problem, but it would look nicer if I could get rid of that extra space (see image). I can not reduce the fece past this poit without a scrollbar appearing.

Extra space at bottom

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Same thing here.... only transparency works.

Try sliding Hue, Saturation and Brightness; worked for me...

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Hmmm, I signed up for this but have yet to recieve an email...hope they haven't finished choosing all of the testers.

Same here. At least a note of rejection would be nice. I'd stop waiting then.

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I wonder if there could be an option to "roll up" a fence to a label only so icons I'm using only from time to time wouldn't take up space on my desktop

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I just downloaded v 0.92 via impulse to check it out this weekend, i have learned in the past that u never install beta software, late at night, hence u end up staying up all night,

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Looks like we can now hide individual Fences which were apparently a problem before but...

There is still a problem with conflict on RightClick as the options for Fences still do not show up on the menu of RightClick.

So far that's the only problem I've come across, but I just started checking it out so we'll see what it does. Very nice and slick, easy to use program, I like it a lot

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All the draems are there but I notice that if I try to use one it crashes explorer. I get the message that "explorer needs to restart". I hope this can be fixed because I like the FENCES program. I agree with others that it would be nice to be asble to disable the program. (the crash occurs with Vista Home Premium 32 bit)

Thanks for great programs STARDOCK!!!

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I've applied fences and so far so good, I'm also on XP but I don't have the same problem as Messiah does, when I right click on a wallpaper it appears on the desktop as it should, I have even got wallpaper folders in my fence, open them up and I can use the R/C set as wallpaper function from there as well....as I say so far so good, I am actually pretty chuffed with this application, even with running multiple projects...word doc., photo's you name it, the Fence's are co-operating just great...thank you for a great little piece of software, that is pretty awesome

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Thuglife - if you have the new build from this Friday/Saturday, then I believe the bug that messiah reported has been fixed in that version. Thanks for confirming, and for the great compliments!!

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Awesome program, and I can really see myself using this thing almost every day

However, I have a question/issue... when I right click on the Fence to change the name, I get no Fences-specific menus. I still get the normal display right-click menus, whether I right-click on a fenced area or the rest of the desktop. Anyone else have this problem?

Running XP SP3 and WB....all up to date

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there's no "close"/"unload" at this time unfortunatly....only "uninstall"

Hey Jeff, just started playing with Fences and I have found a way to turn it off, sort of, loading IconX disables Fences. The strange thing, I think, is that even icons I have moved from desktop to Fences still load properly when I load IconX.

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Just installed the new beta,

The problems I was having before with the fences config have vanished !! thanks for the fix!

thanks for the new "exclude this fence" feature. I like that I can choose which fences I want to show at any given time. also nice is the "change the name of this fence " before if I wanted to do that I would literally have to delete the fence and create a new one .

Is there a possibility of "skinning" the fences in the future? (beyond the color and transparency changes) ... I mean, some like sleek as it is now, but sometimes ya just want to have fun and chain link or split rail or even electric fencing would make things more original

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