JMB1984

Join Date 03/2001

+47

Having problems with Fences? Help us by submitting your diagnostics info

Available in v0.96 beta, updated 1/25/09

Having problems with explorer crashing? The Fences settings dialog crashing? Context menus not showing up properly? They're rare & far inbetween, but if this is you, please take the time to send in your diagnostics information.

In the latest build up on Impulse I've added some debug information catching / crash logging.

First: Update your copy of Fences to the v0.96 beta. Make sure you have "Show pre-release versions" checked in Impulse, and install it / reboot. From there, reproduce the problem you were having

Next: head to the Fences settings dialog. On the about page, there's now a button "Debug Info" ; give it a click. If you can't get the dialog open at all, go there directly by heading to "%appdata%\Stardock\Fences\TroubleshootingLog\". Email the file shown at that location ("fences_debug_info.txt"), along with a description of your problem and something along the lines of "Fences Debug Info" in the subject, to "fencesbeta" (at stardock).

Thanks, and happy testing!

fences

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Actually yes. After 4 hours of putzing around I uninstalled Fences. Ever since the update it is doing exactly what it was designed to stop. Explorer crashes incessantly, After ininstalling Fences, which by th way was no small feat in itself. U sing built in uninstaller, via Impulse left all kunds of Registry value. Am I to understand that if I do as satated above it will work?

I am runnning Vista SP2 and had no problems at all before the update, skyzyk

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If you can, please find the debug-information file as described above and mail it to us... it could be valuable in finding out what's going wrong. Let me know if you need more help and I'll email you with more information. Thanks...

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Could not keep Windows 7 Explorer running long enough to get the logs. Tried to uninstall but could not even get the uninstaller to work. Had to reformat my drive. Will try to get log again after I get Windows 7 32-bit installed and get Impulse on and download the Fences again.

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Have you tried rebooting in to safe mode? For information on booting into safemode, see here http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/help/323ef48f-7b93-4079-a48a-5c58eec904a11033.mspx

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I possted this elsewhere - sorry it should be here

I have just had to uninstall Fences on my desktop and laptop. I installed the latest update for fences and when the machines rebooted they both get errors "windows explorer has stopped working" and the only way to stop that was to uninstall fences by loading in safe mode and running impulse. I couldn't uninstall from control panel>programs as it said i had to wait until it had finished (what i dont know but from task manager i could see that impulse was starting and stopping in an endless loop). I uninstalled from Impulse, rebooted and both machines are fine, i just re installed fences on the notebook and it worked, recovered all the settings yet when i rebooted (just to see if it would do the same thing again) it did, so it has been uninstalled and i will wait for the next version.

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I'm experiencing the same Explorer crashes on both Windows Vista SP1 (32 bits) & Windows 7 (64 bits)... I had to uninstall Fences just to make my OS functional again. I will try to install it again and capture the log file (since I came to this post after uninstalling fences).

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even uninstalled i still found the log there - search by filename for "fences_debug_info.txt" - oh you have to allow to see hidden and system files.

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Windows 7 beta same thing. Cannot keep fences running long enough to do anything as explorer keeps crashing recycling over and over......would love to help but have to wait this one out

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Hi everyone... good news, I feel confident that we've fixed the cyclic-crashing problem. Was a mistake with the Win7 support fix that should be all taken care of with the new build on Impulse, v0.96[b].016. Thanks

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Yes it did.....thank you.....I love this program......

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Hi Jeff,

it seems your new release fixed my problem. Fences is now stable again - no more explorer crashes. Go on working like that. I dont know any other company to send me an email after reporting a bug. What a response... Thank you so much - i like fences.l

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Fixed - thank you!

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So far so good! Contextual Menus are working. I'll let you know if it crashes, which I hope it doesn't. YES!!

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Latest update of Fences (b16?) caused Fences to disappear all icons etc. completely. The crashing of the settings program continues as before for me (V64U, 8gb ram, quad intel cpu, dual nvidia 8 series GPUs), so I had to uninstall Fences entirely (as I can't seem to find the "revert" option in Impulse that I had with SDC.

Once it came back up, I was able to get the icons back by selecting RMB/View/Show Desktop Icons. Interestingly, it was Checked when I went to it. I then selected it and the icons came back. I went back and found it was "still" checked. As if something in Vista was misreporting the checked/unchecked status for this setting. Very strange.

I'll try a fresh Fences install when the next beta comes out unless you guys have some suggestions on what went wrong with this update.

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The following is intended to be a well-documented history of a .net crash relating to Fences. The current version does not seem to have this issue, but I wanted to document what I know so far, in case it crops up again.

--------------

After (belatedly) reporting an issue where Fences failed to run (first cropped on 7 Jan, reported on 22 Jan), I had uninstalled Fences and reinstalled today (prompted by an email received from Stardock). The original issue I had with Fences not able to run, and the corresponding eventvwr log, was posted as a response to someone else's issue posted here:

Fences errors

This current version of Fences (v0.96.1505) installed successfully, and I completed configuration using one of the preset layouts. Both installation and configuration completed without error or any issues reported in eventvwr. The original issue therefore appears to be resolved.

In trying to track information that might be relevant to the original issue, I've found the following updates to my system between 7 Jan and today:

Windows XP	Cumulative Security Update for ActiveX Killbits for Windows XP (KB956391)	Saturday, January 31, 2009	Automatic Updates
Windows Internet Explorer 8 Dynamic Installer	Update for Internet Explorer 8 Dynamic Installer Compatibility View List for Windows XP (KB961813)	Friday, January 30, 2009	Other Source
Windows XP	Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 for Windows XP	Friday, January 30, 2009	Automatic Updates
Windows XP	Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - January 2009 (KB890830)	Tuesday, January 13, 2009	Microsoft Update
Windows XP	Security Update for Windows XP (KB958687)	Tuesday, January 13, 2009	Microsoft Update
Windows XP	Security Update for Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB954430)	Wednesday, January 07, 2009	Automatic Updates

In addition, within that same period, I'd updated to the current nVidia WHQL release for my 7950GT card available at nvidia.com (181.22 XP 32-bit US English).

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Good stuff! If you do see it again, be sure to snag Fence's diagnostics log and email it to us by going to the "About" area of the config dialog and clicking the "Debug Info" button.

Thanks for the detailed report!

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Have updated to latest beta on Impulse (0.96.037)
Fiddled around with some of the new color settings.
Exited the config. Doubleclicked desktop to hide Fences, and got this:

Haven't been able to reproduce it though.

(Vista Ultimate)

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Hey, just tried the latest beta and Fences is BACK on my machine. Most interestingly, the debug feature works. Before, when I tried to Edit Settings, the window would appear, then crash and go away. Now, the window appears, a crash/debug window arrives, and as long as I don't hit OK in the debug window, I can finally edit/change my Fences settings. So, that helps me workaround the fact that couldn't edit settings before.

Here's the latest debug message text from the logfile. I emailed you the previous logfile per your request.

Version:    0.96.1505
Timestamp:    2/1/2009 6:17:32 PM
Exception:    Value of '303' is not valid for 'ImageSize.Width'. 'ImageSize.Width' should be between 1 and 256.
Parameter name: ImageSize
Stack Trace:
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.MarshaledInvoke(Control caller, Delegate method, Object[] args, Boolean synchronous)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.Invoke(Delegate method, Object[] args)
   at DesktopDockUI.Dialogs.Panes.ToolsPaneA.RefreshSnapshots()
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()
------------------------------------------------------

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hullo, iam using fences beta..just got update. so far, ive nothing major or minor to report.

cheers fences development team

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=-o it needs to be between 1 & 256 eh?? no kiddin. well that makes sense. i'll fix that up. you have an xtra xtra wide screen or something? thanks for the report.

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Yes, on this, my home machine, I'm using three monitors on two adapters for a desktop that is 5280x1050/1200.

Thanks, amigo. My systems always define the very bleeding edge.

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+350

Installed Fences this evening (from the webpage download link) on my XPP rig, set it up & it worked exactly as advertised. I love the app & the idea. Double-clicking would hide all but the one fence I had excluded from quick-hide (and all the other fenced icons) to leave a nice clean desktop.

Happened to launch Impulse & noted there was an update (0.96.037) so I updated Fences & rebooted as suggested. Now, when I double-click the desktop, all the unlocked fences hide but none of the icons within them hide. No error or crash messages to share.

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+350

Forgot to mention that Fences appears to pull the color for much of the config UI text from the desktop icon color - not a good idea if that color happens to be white unless the config UI background is uniformly darker, which it isn't. I was having to check & uncheck 'naked' checkboxes to figure out what they would do.

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I have been using Fences for a while now, i was one of the fortunate ones chosen early to check it out, now i must confess, i use fences instead of Objectdock, it forced me over to the fences side, LOL, nice job on this application, friends and family see it on my pc, and their first response is "i want that too"

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+350

RE: Reply #22 -

Uninstalled & reverted to the downloadable 0.96 version & all is well again. Looking forward to the enhancements as dev progresses. Nice job, Jeff.

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