Transparency Problem with Multiple Monitors and Backgrounds

from Stardock Forums

I recently upgraded to the Fences 3.03 version on my PC running Windows10.  I did this to resolve the issue with Fences 2.x where it would not allow placement of new icons inside the fences.

However, I have noticed a new bug that was not present in Fences 2.x.

I have two monitors (DVI & VGA) and have Windows10 configured to display wallpaper backgrounds and these backgrounds change every 20 minutes.  With Win7 both monitors would show the same background, but after installing Win10, I found that the backgrounds for each monitor would be different.  I thought this was a great enhancement.

But after installing Fences 3.03 I noticed that with the transparency for the fences set to allow a fuzzy view of the background, the fences on the main monitor show the fuzzy image of the background image on the secondary monitor.  You can see this below:

Notice how the fence transparency doesn't look anything like the background?  That's the issue.

The kicker is that it's not always consistent.  Sometimes the fuzzy transparency is for the background image on the primary monitor and sometimes it's not.  And sometimes, just as the background images are changing the fence transparency changes to the correct image, but then the actual background image changes - so it's wrong again - after being right for a second or two.

I suspect that the "transparency code" isn't always getting pointed to the right background to generate the fence's fuzzy background, so it's just chance that the fence image and the background image are the same.

As I was writing this post the primary screen went from "not matching" (like the image above) to "matching".

BTW, all my fences are positioned on the primary screen.  If I create a fence on the secondary screen, it suffers from the same problem.

 

 

Rick

fences
15,634 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

This is a problem for me too. I have 3 monitors and the fence background on the monitor where it resided changes to a blurred background of any monitor on which the fence does not reside. It changes to the proper background when the monitor on which the fence resides changes (the background becomes a burred version of the background on the monitor).

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

What you see is due to changes Microsoft has made to wallpaper rendering in Windows 10.
If you turn off the blur feature in Fences the issues will go away.  If you are having the wallpaper change on a schedule that will cause the issue to manifest.  Disabling that will also fix the issue.

We are looking at ways to mitigate this MS change. 

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank you for the reply and the workarounds.  Please let us know when there might be a more permanent fix for this.

 

Rick

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting rgmcleod52, reply 3

Thank you for the reply and the workarounds.  Please let us know when there might be a more permanent fix for this.

 

Rick
End of rgmcleod52's quote

When we have a fix, we'll post it here.