vanishing icons

from Stardock Forums

I installed 2.11 on my Windows 7/64 laptop yesterday and immediately thought Fences was fabulous--the perfect solution to the maddening problem of ever rearranging icons that bedevils many Windows users. After spending a lot of time setting up Fences, in an instant, every single one of my desktop icons vanished. In vain I looked for a solution in the Fences control panel, but only uninstalling Fences brought them back. I really, really wanted Fences to work, so I installed again, and exactly the same thing happened. I'm sure it wasn't the quick hide feature because I disabled it the second time I installed. So can anyone offer a solution? I really want to get Fences to work. I'd like to try the 2.12 demo, but apparently there's no way to use it as a demo, and I don't want to pay for 2.11 since, so far, it doesn't work.

If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it.

fences
4,537 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Perhaps the icons are on a different desktop page. To test this, you can disable Desktop pages to see if your Fence \ Icon is returned to your main desktop:

http://screencast.com/t/qfWiGVjAml

If that option does not work for you, please download and run the following utility:

http://sd.stardock.com/SDSupportTool.exe

This is a tool that we use to gather relevant log files and basic information about your computer. Once the utility finishes running, please send the .zip file it creates on the desktop to support@stardock.com so we can look into this for you.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks very much, the desktop pages setting seems to be the culprit. With it enabled, I created one small fence with a few icons as a test and then tried moving it off screen, and when it was about halfway off, all the icons not in fences instantly disappeared. The test fence did too as soon as I took the mouse of it. Disabling the desktop page function brought them all back immediately. I don't know if this is a bug or a feature that someone didn't think through very well, but I'll keep experimenting with Fences now. It's a really cool program and a blessed solution to a major Windows annoyances that was driving me nuts.

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

If you want to use the desktop pages feature, you can turn it back on and then using the instructions that are within the box in my screenshot, you can switch back and forth between the pages. This should allow you to see all of your items.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

The program is very buggy and the team will not fix it. People have been reporting this issue for over 7 months now.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting shinra358, reply 4

The program is very buggy and the team will not fix it. People have been reporting this issue for over 7 months now.
End of shinra358's quote

Icons missing because quick hide is enabled or they are placed onto a different desktop page is less of a bug and more of a usability/configuration issue.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi

I'm also reporting that some icons will be lost eventually. Several shortcut icons vanished from my fences during last 2 days.
From now, I'll pay close attention to see what action does it.

Windows 8.1 pro
Fences 2.12

(I purchased it within Object Desktop Manager package)

Regards

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

When they go missing, you have to re-add them? If so, do they go missing eventually after you re-add them? Are these icons things that point to resources on a network or to something just locally on your machine?

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi

Approx 40% of my icons vanished from desktop after I installed (latest) Stardock Object Manager
with only these apps atm: Fences, Icon Packager, Modern Mix, Start8

I'm gradually adding em again and I'll report here if they vanish again.

All icons were pointing to local program installations

 

PS:

In Start8 program, when I right click on any icon, I cannot see option Send To -> Desktop (Create Shortcut)
Is this regular behavior or some issue?

When I do it on regular *.exe file with Windows Explorer, I can see this option normally.

Regards