Fences incompatibility with ATI MultiDesk

from Stardock Forums

Hi,

 

Fences is a great program but I noticed an incompatibilty with ATI's MultiDesk program--a desktop enhancement which is used by millions.

MutliDesk, a Windows XP/Vista tray app, creates virtual desktops which you can alternate between with a mouse click (much like the default desktop behavior in most versions of Linux).  Icons are shared between desktops, but each desktop can have different application windows open.  It's a real sweet capability to have in Windows and thus is close to a must have.

One tiny advantage MultiDesk has over some other programs which do this (including Linux's Gnome desktop) is that each desktop can be defined with unique wallpaper, so you can tell at a glance which workspace you are in.

Fences breaks this.

The "fenced" areas DO render properly on each desktop.  Because icons are common between each desktop anyway, its no surprise this part works.  But for some reason, Fences sitting on top of MultiDesk breaks the capability to have different wallpapers on each space.

If there's a formal way to report this as a bug beyond typing it here, let me know.  I think the fix probably isn't that hard, but I'm betting its on the Stardock side of things and not the ATI side.  While its not a horrible thing to be broken, MultiDesk still DOES work overall, the fact that MultiDesk is used by SO many people is probably incentive to get this fixed.

 

Thanks.

2,800 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

One clarification.  MultiDesk is also known sometimes as "Hydravision".   It's part of their Catalyst Suite, which comes by default on a lot of OEM installs.  The page for it at ATI is here:

 

http://ati.amd.com/products/hydravision/features.html

 

I'm specifically using the "Full" Windows XP version (there's also a "light version", but I believe the Full is what's pre-loaded on most systems where its installed by default).  This probably has to be tested against both the XP and Vista versions.  Both are which are explained here:

 

http://ati.amd.com/products/catalyst/hydravision/index.html  and  http://ati.amd.com/products/Hydravision/index.html

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

It is tuff for Stardock to try and make thier softwae work with every program out there, one might say near impossible. 

Stardock does have thier own Virstual Desktop software.  You might take a look at it.  https://www.stardock.com/products/vwm/

TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

True.  But this isn't some minor player.  ATI is the single biggest video card maker in the world and a huge percentage of notebooks/laptops released over the past five or six years come pre-loaded with their Catalyst Suite, Hydravision, and MultiDesk suite.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

In fences, go to the about tab and hit the debug info button.  Send along the requested data along with the info you provided here.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

This is a user based support forum. Stardock does pop in from time to time but this isn't the best way to get results with your specific issue. As this is not the "official" Stardock Support, I would suggest you email support@stardock.com with a reference & link to this thread and the log Zubaz mentioned to get a trouble ticket started.

 

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Support isn't officially supporting Fences yet . . so thebetter email is fencesbeta@stardock.com.

(I meant to put that in my inital post but got distracted by a shiney object.)

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Wiley,

Wondering, where did you install Fences from... from Impulse or from a web-installer? The version you appear to be running doesn't appear to be the very latest, and I think the problem may be resolved for you in a more recent version. That said, we also are planning on doing another new version in the next week sometime. (Last one was from mid-march)

Thanks

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

"I do not have attention def..."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Shiny! Shiny!

 

Quoting Zubaz, reply 6
Support isn't officially supporting Fences yet . . so thebetter email is fencesbeta@stardock.com.

(I meant to put that in my inital post but got distracted by a shiney object.)
End of Zubaz's quote

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

JMB1984,

I downloaded the version on CNET.com (0.96).  From here:  http://download.cnet.com/Fences/3000-2072_4-10909535.html?tag=mncol

 

I'll keep an eye out for any updates though.  And I appear to have the setting to check weekly for updates turned on as well (that dialog says I have 0.96.1583BETA right now and claims I am up to date).

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

the latest is v0.96.1647

I'd suggest downloading Impulse and using it to update.

IMPULSE

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

Just out of curiousity, is there a reason that the internal updater inside Fences won't update to the newest code?

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi,

 

Finally got a chance to install Impulse, since that seems to be the only way to update Fences (I'm still confused as to why Fences HAS an internal update option if it indeed does nothing).

Anyway... latest Fences code (v0.96.1650 at the time of this post) doesn't change anything in relation to ATI MultiDesk.  Sorry.

I don't think this is the kind of problem which will be solved outside of them making a specific effort to test against the product.  If they consider it a niche, as has been implied, then it won't happen I guess.  But again, I'd argue that "default with many ATI driver installs" is hardly a niche.

Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If they consider it a niche, as has been implied, then it won't happen I guess.
End of quote

Just so you know.....reply #8 is from THE developer.....now that he is aware of the issue it will likely get attention during a future update.