Desktop icon spacing all messed up

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Have you tried this setting.

Also, you can use this icon to insert picture into your forum post.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community  Assistant.

Hi Crash28, you should be able to paste an image directly in.

To that end, if you could upload a debug log that would be helpful.

(1) Enable advanced debug logging (important) - this allows spacing info to be captured

(2) Reboot

(3) Reproduce the issue

(4) Send us the log.

You can access this "Enable advanced logging" and "Create error package" from the About -> Troubleshooting menu

I've also found this issue occurring with spacing in Fences.  If I enable and then disable the setting for "Use same spacing inside and outside of Fences groups", the spacing returns to normal.

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. The issue appear randomly or after specific steps such as first boot of, after full screen apps, after wake from sleep etc. Can it be randomly be reproduce etc. Also need your system details.

1. Windows 11 full version and OS Build number.
2. Fences full version number installed.
3. Single or multi monitor system. Also need monitor/s details such as resolution, Windows scale factor (100%, 125% etc), monitor connection type such as monitor docking stations etc

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community  Assistant.

Hello,

Here is a "me too" post. After latest update to fences, after every reboot, spacing on 2nd monitor is much too large. Toggling "Layout management/icon spacing" (as above) fixes the spacing immediately.

1. OS Name: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro, Version: 10.0.26200 Build 26200

2. Stardock Fences version 6.46

3. multi monitor.

Monitor 1, HDR, HDMI, 3840 x 2160, scale 200%

Monitor 2, HDMI, 1920 x 1080, scale 100%

All fences are on Monitor 2.

Two additional data points:

Monitor 2 is the monitor that turns on when the system boots up and displays the BIOS boot sequence

Graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

--

jcii

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Please refer to reply#2, follow the steps mentioned there and send it your report to Dev for review.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community  Assistant.

The issue occurs randomly.

Windows 11 Pro Version 25H2 Build 26200.8457

Fences version 6.46

Single monitor 7680x2160 with 175% scaling.  Monitor connected directly to PC.

Thanks for the report, we're looking into this one. Might have to do with an unrelated DPI-related fix within the last few months.

@rick Does this only happen when "Use same spacing inside and outside of Fences groups" it set, and for icons within groups? From what you said it sounds like turning that off and back on again resolved, so some sort of intermittent thing going on there. Wondering if it impacts when that setting is left off, or, if its occurring for icons outside of groups

@jcardii same, is this "use same spacing" enabled when this occurs? Sounds like toggling it off/on fixes, but wondering if it's exclusively related to this feature not working consistently.

Happens whether or not "use same spacing" is on. Toggling state from off to on OR on to off forces a redraw/reposition and the icons are all repositioned to their correct spacing in all fences - this has been my workaround.

I have the option to "use same spacing" turned off.  When the spacing of the icons gets messed up, turning the option on and off resolves it temporarily.  The spacing seems to get messed up when I come back to my computer after the monitor goes dark to save energy.

Good to know. Thanks jcardii, rick. We're going to have a build soon that (1) takes a crack at resolving [unlikely to fix, but, a guess] (2) has some more debug info.

Due to the intermittent nature of these, having to take guesses on where to even put this debug output, but am hoping this gives info. Again guessing this has to do with an issue we fixed within the last few months regarding monitoring HMONITOR handle handling, and downstream impacts.

Hi all, we’re still working at wiring this up, but hope to have a build to test next week, thanks for your patience.

A question as we continue to dig in. Short of toggling that option on/off, wondering what other types of activities “fix” the situation. I.e does just moving or resizing the Fence group resolve the issue? It sounds like perhaps moving it between monitors resolves it, but perhaps not just moving it before changing monitors? (Monitor might be saving an incorrect DPI for that monitor, I wonder, if so. If so, more aggressive DPI refreshing might help, on our end of things — but, also, would love to stamp out it getting an incorrect value to begin with if so.)

Likewise I’m going to check the threads again here but also farming out questions like, does it apply to all autoarranged ungrouped icons as well? Sounds like the original post was about ungrouped icons. Assuming so for at least that poster, I’m wondering if moving an icon for sake of autoarrange fixes it, but I’m guessing not. Am also guessing again that it might make a difference here which monitor is the primary, which is sleeping, which have different DPIs. So, working to put together the factors.

Thank you again!

Hello, I'm having the same problem since 6.46. But setting "use same spacing" on and off doesn't fix anything😱

Hopefully since I rebooted and it seems fixed.

Hi all, we may have a read on this one – can see in some logs where an inaccurate DPI might be coming in. Please stand by for a test build later this week

Version 6.48, issue not seen in half dozen reboots/restarts. Appears to be corrected for me.

I upgraded to version 6.48, but the issue is still occurring for me.

Same here.

Hi guys, same problem for me. I've just upgraded from version 4, please resolve this issue.

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having issues. Look like Dev is looking into this issue. Just to be sure, 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

For anyone still struggling with this:
1. Find your icon size. Fences renders bigger than the Windows grid — that's the whole bug. The horizontal spacing has to be ≥ your icon width.

2. The rule: twips = pixels × 15 (negative). So 170px → -2550.

3. Tune one axis at a time, log out to test.

Fix: widen the Windows desktop icon grid so it stops colliding with Fences' larger icons.

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /v IconSpacing /t REG_SZ /d -2550 /f

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /v IconVerticalSpacing /t REG_SZ /d -1125 /f

Then sign out and back in.

The two numbers are spacing in TWIPS = pixels × 15 (negative).

-2550 = 170px horizontal, -1125 = 75px vertical.

These values are tuned for 4K @ 125% scaling (132px icons). If your resolution or text size differs, your icons are a different pixel size, so adjust: raise the horizontal magnitude until icons stop overlapping side-to-side, raise the vertical until rows stop overlapping. Log out between tries — the grid only refreshes on sign-in.

I hope this help. Claude can also help if any of this is not clear enough.

What would the numbers be for 7680 x 2160 with 175% scale?

Hi all – just to update status on this, we're going to be revisiting this here.

Some context on what makes this a hard problem:
- Explorer effectively lies about spacing. When querying, there are many scenarios in which it gives incorrect metrics, so, it needs to be inferred. Basically any change ever of DPI during a session, in particular, makes things whacky, even when returning to the base DPI. This can include simply monitors going to sleep, which under the covers often "changes" the DPI to 100%, which, can cause chaos.
- Intermittent'ness and otherwise narrow reproduce scenarios also creates a challenge, as usually, restarting Explorer completely changes its handling. (In a way too that is not consistent with a log-off/log-on after a DPI change.)
- Per-monitor DPI is also handled inconsistently and is very "moody" let's just say. 

Given that prior attempts haven't succeeded nor necessarily delivered information to solve, we're going to have to figure out what is the next attempts to be made.

A key question(s) I think remain:
- is it happening for within Fence groups only or "whole desktop", etc, and is this consistent between different users' bugged scenarios.
- prior reports cited toggling on/off "Use same spacing inside and outside Fence groups" would resolve the issue, suggesting some sort of transient possibly monitor-change oriented issue was sticking. But, wondering if this is still the case, or not at all the case for some folks etc. Not sure if folks are experiencing "no it's just broken, always, from startup onward" etc.

Looking forward to taking another pass as this as both clearly folks are affected, and we're seeing this intermittently as well.

A couple pieces here to note:

- Unless we're missing it, not seeing any debug log upload.

- @rick_summon, recounting, the issue seen is that icons within fence groups get scrunched up sometimes when returning from sleep. Othertimes, it is normal. "Use same spacing" is off, but toggling it on and off seems to resolve. It's unsaid whether the issue happens for the loose desktop icons or only within Fence groups

- @crash28, from your posts so far, it you do have "Use same spacing" enabled, and the issue is persistent. As well, it affects both inside and outside of groups. Disabling "Use same spaces" resolves, for inside groups. Not seeing any screenshots (you can just paste them in) nor am I seeing a log upload.

So, it seems likely there are two different things going on here.

- @iotivedo, am not seeing any details about the issue you're experiencing. Please share more and/or enable advanced logging and then upload a debug log.

@Crash28, your issue might fall into a known bucket when >= "Large" icons in use where we're able to see issue, but, unknown without the log with advanced logging enabled. For reference, a regflag you can turn on to enable a likely fix, given your arrangement of facts:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\Fences\Settings
(DWORD) Insider26257RealSpacingShim = 2

@Crash, given you have a persistant issue that affects the entire desktop, this seems like it might be it for you. @rick, however, if you're still seeing the transient issue, then yes that's still something we need to jam on together. Thank you!

This has been a problem for years that they've never fixed, but hey, pay us forever instead of just buying our software!