Restore Fences to another computer?

from Stardock Forums

I have two computers that share a OneDrive account, allowing me to keep them in sync so I can move between them at will.  I have Fences installed on both, however I haven't found a way to keep the Fence configuration in sync. 

I see that I can do backups, but it doesn't look like I can back up one computer and restore the configuration on the other.  (I can do this in Start11, but not in Fences.) - Is it possible??

fences
416 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience. Thank you.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi dcomo1, currently, re sync, this is not possible, but it's something we're potentially investigating.

As we've considered, it, one major question is whether the two(+) PCs have the exact same screen resolution and DPI. In theory, this is usually "no", in which case the layout itself would not be able to sync, but, the Fence group context would, and the existance of groups. They'd just need to be manually placed. So, it's unclear if this has any value.

As is there's no explicit export feature, but you can move the folder "%appdata%\Stardock\Fences\Backups" from the one computer to the other to load the layout up. If you've ever used the target-PC's resolution before, it will load the corresponding layout, and if not, it'll copy the current layout to that resolution and scale.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top


I see that I can do backups, but it doesn't look like I can back up one computer and restore the configuration on the other. 
End of quote

That is not so - please see:

https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1331494954/Transferring+the+Fences+Layout%2FSnapshot

Sean Drohan
Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks for the update and info. While basj is correct (My two computers have two different resolutions and monitor setups), I do find there is value in maintaining the Fence groups across multiple PCs, even if the configurations differ.

(I see this as two different things; one is the look (location, DPI), the other is the content.)

Thanks!

Drew

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Good to know. Yup, the functionality we’re considering would sync contents, as well as offering to “copy” the layout from another PC.

Btw one major thing we wouldn’t be able to work around — OneDrive can be a bit noisy around file changes. Tbd, but initial indications are that when you do change the contents of a group, it’s possible that you end up with a OneDrive notification of file changes on other PC, and certainly the config files will show up in the recently synced list. Your thoughts on this topic?

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

"Yup, the functionality we’re considering would sync contents, as well as offering to “copy” the layout from another PC." - This is perfect!

In my use case, I have a primary machine, then a few downstream secondaries.  All my changes are done on my primary, however I sometimes use the secondaries to consume files.  (I personally do not require multi-directional syncs, but I could see maybe some people would.)

I also am not too concerned about the noisiness of OneDrive.  (All the file sync services are typically noisy!)

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank you!

One final question. Do you have many/any icons in "%public%\Desktop" that vary between the computers?

If we do this functionality, we're going to have to figure out how to handle the reality that different computers are going to have different icons, I think.