Desktop is weird after latest Windows 10 update

Does the latest Windows 10 update have problems with Fences 3?

from Stardock Forums

After the 2022-02 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 20H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5010342) my Desktop had been acting very strange. e.g. No response to mouse clicks. Can't close open windows. Desktop icons suddenly turning blank. Taskbar icons turning blank. The only way to fix this is to Ctrl-Al-del and log out, then log back in.

This has never happened after a Windows 10 update and the only difference to my system is that I installed Fences 3 a couple days ago.

 

fences
8,412 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. And how does this related to Fences? Does the issue go away if you uninstall Fences and reboot?

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I am having the same problem. Been using Fences for years. But when Windows 10 updated this morning, all my settings were gone. My file manager says everything is there but all software needs to be re-installed. When Fences is launched, I get the new customer treatment. 

How to I find my old settings?  I looked for my account but can't find it. May be in outlook contacts but that does not work. 

 

Is there a way to recover my Fences settings so I don't have to start all over again??

 

Doug

DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

PS If I uninstall Fences will that wipe out my old Fences desktop?? 

Doug

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

No, it should not, unless you pick not to save your settings. But, to be sure you can use this guide to save your layout snapshot as a backup : [Link]

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

 

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

It relates to Fences because I never had a problem with Windows 10 updates until after I installed Fences. Anyway I uninstalled fences. And it seems there is no usual way to get Fences cleanly uninstalled which is a gigantic pain. Anyway after using an uninstall script I found on this website I think I got all of Fences uninstalled. But the desktop problem still exists. So I guess it is not related to Fences. The problem is so bad that my Windows 10 machine is nearly unusable and I'll probably have to do a clean install of Windows. It'll take weeks to get it back to the way I like it will all the stuff I had installed.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

I'm back.  I am having the same problem that arises with latest Win 10 update Feb. 9. I can launch fences but all my old settings are gone. So I try to rebuild Fences with some new "boxes".  that works.  Then I restart my PC and all of this is missing and we go back to a desk top that shows old app icons from years ago. Not just fences but ALL apps are doing Like Tokyo Dan, my PC is useless now.  Sad since File explorer shows everything is still there. Removing Win W10 updates post Feb. 8 does not fix it. 

Some other forums suggest that this problem is due to lack of space on Drive C (SSD) where all op systems and programs are located. 

Deleted some unneeded files on C.  That did not help. 

Other forums suggest this problem is a corrupted Drive C.  This includes Dell Support.  They say back up everything, and re-install Win 10.  My data files are backed up but what a pain reinstall all my apps programs settings, etc. including Fences. 

Has anyone on this forum experienced that and been forced through the process or re-installation. 

Dell says my PC has lots of power, hard drive space. It is 4 yrs old. MS says it will not upgrade to Win 11 ! 

Doug

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

In my case Fences always worked properly. It was just that I started experiencing my weird desktop problems after the Feb. 8th Windows 10 update. I never had any problems after Windows updates and the only thing that was different was that I had recently installed Fences. So I was wondering if Fences conflicted with the update (or visa versa). But I uninstalled Fences, had the same problem, reinstalled Fences, had the same problem. When through all the standard Windows tuning, checking, repair, cleaning admin stuff. Did everything outside of trying to reinstall Windows....I even uninstalled the latest update, but had the same problem. Then I turned off Windows auto-updates for the longest period possible (5 weeks I think). But then I thought that next week's update might cure my problem so I turned back on the auto-updates. But here's the thing...

After I turned back on the auto-updates, Windows wanted to reinstall the Feb 8th update (which I had just uninstalled and which didn't fix my problem). I let Windows reinstall the Feb. 8th update, and now my problems seems to be fixed. Two days now and I haven't had that problem again, when it was happening every 5 minutes before. My system was pretty much unusable because I had to sign out and sign back in to clear the problem which would occur again in 5 minutes or so.

So my conclusion is that the first time Windows installed the Feb 8th update, somehow it got corrupted. Uninstalling it, then reinstalling it cleared the problem because it probably overwrote whatever files/libraries were corrupted.