Fences causes long lag/explorer crash when going to desktop

from Stardock Forums

I've used fences for quite a number of years and always had this issue to some extent but put it down to the laptop I was using, however having just upgraded to a brand new i7 16GB lenovo X380 yoga the problem persists and it's quite annoying.

When pressing the Win-D shortcut with fences enabled the whole system freezes up for a while (around 5 seconds) with the desktop wallpaper showing and no icons or fences, the screen then goes black briefly and the desktop reloads with the taskbar icons coming back one by one and the icons and fences rendering.

When manually minimising each window this doesn't happen, not does it happen with fences disabled.

Any ideas how to prevent this annoying behaviour?

fences
101,011 views 39 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having issues. We need more information. Windows versions, Fences versions, and more details on your fences/ folder portal layout, dual monitors or more monitors? etc etc.

Thanks

Basj,

Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks for the quick reply.

  • Windows 10 Pro
  • Fences 3.0.9.11
  • 6 icon fences, 27 icons total
  • 5 folder icons, 2 of which are network drive locations
  • 4 screens, the laptop screen plus 3 more (all fences on just one screen)

The same problem happens as well when you use a shortcut like Win-Left, etc. to be able to move a window to the left side of the screen for example.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Few more questions.

1) Will the problem occurs with only one screen attached? (Disable all other 3)

2) Will the problem occurs with all the folder portals to those network drive location deleted? Note: You can take/save a layout snapshot to restore it later.

Thank you,

Basj,

Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Yes, problem occurs still for both scenarios.

Tested by disconnecting the laptop dock entirely (so no external screens) and removing the network folder portals. Behaviour is the same.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

I have forwarded your report to the Stardock support team for their review and recommendations.

Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

We really do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

 

AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

When pressing the Win-D shortcut with fences enabled the whole system freezes up for a while (around 5 seconds) with the desktop wallpaper showing and no icons or fences, the screen then goes black briefly and the desktop reloads with the taskbar icons coming back one by one and the icons and fences rendering.
End of quote

There have been reports of such an issue but its extremely rare and we can never reproduce it.

If you have some wallpaper software installed, please change the desktop to a solid color and try again.  If that fails, I would like to have you try a clean boot:

https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#cleanboot

 

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Just to reduce the "rarity" of this issue, I also have this problem (exactly as the OP reported).

  • Windows 10 Enterprise
  • Fences 3.09.11
  • 3 icon fences, 76 icons total
  • 17 folder icons (no network mappings)
  • 2 screens (laptop and 1 external)
  • Using Intel CPU's graphics (HD Graphics 520)

There is a slight difference in my experience, however:

  • Every time I use the "show desktop" button on the taskbar (or Win+D) or Win+Left Arrow/Win+Right Arrow (to snap Explorer window to side of screen) Fences hangs/restarts Explorer.
  • Dragging an Explorer window to the side of the screen to snap/dock it also causes the issue.
  • Win+Up Arrow/Win+Down Arrow, dragging window to top of screen to maximise, & shaking window to maximise/minimise everything does NOT cause the issue.

Hopefully that will be of some assistance tracking down the issue.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

I have displayfusion installed but even turning that off the problem still occurs.

I'm using this on a work computer so I'm not able to create a new local user for the cleanboot test, perhaps chamelespoon might be able to help with this part of the troubleshooting?

Is there no kind of debug logging that I'm able to export and send to you from the software itself?

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting chamelespoon, reply 7

Windows 10 Enterprise
End of chamelespoon's quote

and

Quoting gavincarpenter, reply 8

I'm using this on a work computer so I'm not able to create a new local user for the cleanboot test
End of gavincarpenter's quote

If memory serves, this is also common to the reports - being in a corp environment.

Are either of you using 'Websense' in your environment - if so, you should have a service running for it.  If you are not admins, please ask your IT people.  They wont let you shut that off but it will go a long way to confirming it as a culprit (just does not like how Fences runs in the WinExplorer process).

Quoting gavincarpenter, reply 8

perhaps chamelespoon might be able to help with this part of the troubleshooting?
End of gavincarpenter's quote

We are not convinced it is Fences itself but an interaction with an app, setting, policy, etc.  That is why a clean boot is so important for us to help diagnose the issue.  With near certainty, under a clean boot, Feces would likely work for each of you.  Then would be the personal process of the process of elimination to figure out what app, setting, etc - when re-enabled - is causing the conflict.

 

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting gavincarpenter, reply 8

I'm using this on a work computer so I'm not able to create a new local user for the cleanboot test, perhaps chamelespoon might be able to help with this part of the troubleshooting?
End of gavincarpenter's quote

Sadly this is also on a work laptop, so cleanboot's not possible.

Quoting sdRohan, reply 9

Are either of you using 'Websense' in your environment
End of sdRohan's quote

Not Websense, no, but something similar; in my case Forcepoint Web Security.

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

Forcepoint here as well.

 

So where does this leave us? 

Is it not strange that the shaking a window to minimise all others doesn't cause the problem?

Is there an option to tweak the way fences works to allow better interoperability with such programs, possibly behind an advanced setting if it had other impact/disables some features that may not be used?

+1 Loading…
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting chamelespoon, reply 10

Forcepoint Web Security.
End of chamelespoon's quote

Forcepoint Turns up a lot in searches for WebSense (I think they purchased WebSense).  In any case, it / they are notorious for causing problems with Fences.


 

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Quoting sdRohan, reply 12

Forcepoint Turns up a lot in searches for WebSense (I think they purchased WebSense).  In any case, it / they are notorious for causing problems with Fences.

End of sdRohan's quote

As another point of reference, I tried the same installation on my home machine (Windows 10 Pro, no Forcepoint) and Fences works without issue. So it seems that Forcepoint may be objecting to something Fences is attempting to do.

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting chamelespoon, reply 13

As another point of reference, I tried the same installation on my home machine (Windows 10 Pro, no Forcepoint) and Fences works without issue. So it seems that Forcepoint may be objecting to something Fences is attempting to do.
End of chamelespoon's quote

Appreciate the effort and reporting on your results.

From what we can see, FP seems to not like how Fences runs in the WinExplorer process - something it has always done (as some other apps do I might add).

Again, thank you for the report.

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top

Ok so the root problem has been identified and it's a known issue it seems.

Has Stardock reached out to Forcepoint for their help with this issue? If Forcepoint was incorrectly flagging Fences as malware I would expect that Stardock would quickly be in contact with them to resolve the issue.

Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting gavincarpenter, reply 15

Ok so the root problem has been identified and it's a known issue it seems.

Has Stardock reached out to Forcepoint for their help with this issue? If Forcepoint was incorrectly flagging Fences as malware I would expect that Stardock would quickly be in contact with them to resolve the issue.
End of gavincarpenter's quote

Hello,

I have forwarded your problem to Stardock Support team for their assistant. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patient.

Basj

Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top

I have this issue too. But apparently removing the network shared folder portal fixes this. It seems to happen when Fences can't find the networked share folder because that machine is off/disconnected. Clicking/right clicking the desktop randomly crashes explorer.

+1 Loading…
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting mylestwine, reply 17

I have this issue too. But apparently removing the network shared folder portal fixes this. It seems to happen when Fences can't find the networked share folder because that machine is off/disconnected. Clicking/right clicking the desktop randomly crashes explorer.
End of mylestwine's quote

Thank you for your input. We really appreciate it. One question, does your system also have Forcepoint or Websence installed?

Basj,

Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top

I do not have either of those installed. Also, using latest version of fences and fully up to date Win10. No dual monitors either.

Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting mylestwine, reply 19

I do not have either of those installed. Also, using latest version of fences and fully up to date Win10. No dual monitors either.
End of mylestwine's quote

Ok. Thanks your the information. As for fence portal to network drive there is a workaround to make it work better, here are the steps to it : https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#folderportalsempty

I think the workaround should also work for your issue.

Thank you,

 

Basj,

Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks for the suggestion. Although, this won't work for my case. The network folder doesn't have static files to create shortcuts from. I copy files out of that folder as they arrive. The folder portal gave me a somewhat live view of that folder. It works great when the machine is up and running but if its off, crash city! Not a big deal though. I can just remove the portal whenever the machine is down, only takes a second to re-create it.

Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting mylestwine, reply 21

Thanks for the suggestion. Although, this won't work for my case. The network folder doesn't have static files to create shortcuts from. I copy files out of that folder as they arrive. The folder portal gave me a somewhat live view of that folder. It works great when the machine is up and running but if its off, crash city! Not a big deal though. I can just remove the portal whenever the machine is down, only takes a second to re-create it.
End of mylestwine's quote

Ok.

Thank you,

 

Basj,

Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top

I have update on my Fences crashing. The crashing hasn't happened in a few days now even when the networked computer is turned off. What I changed was instead of creating the folder portal directly from the networked machine, I created a mapped network drive first for that folder, then created the folder portal from the mapped network drive. At least everything seems stable now.

Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting mylestwine, reply 23

The crashing hasn't happened in a few days now even when the networked computer is turned off. What I changed was instead of creating the folder portal directly from the networked machine, I created a mapped network drive first for that folder, then created the folder portal from the mapped network drive.
End of mylestwine's quote

That is very interesting and a point (mapping vs direct) that we have perhaps missed in the past when supporting others with similar folder portal to network issues.  We have incorrectly assumed everyone would be using mapping.

Thank you for this.