Thanks for confirming you're deliberately giving us the shaft if we don't want yet another subscription for a desktop cleanup, Dr. W.

Good to get it confirmed.  I presumed the buy outright would be higher because the software would have a longer lifecycle.  Kinda like Plex having a lifetime vs subscription.

I've uninstalled it now, I'm not going to play this game.  Granted, it's not an airport etc.

You should add desktop presets in your software that can apply for differents monitors configuration. Here I've a laptop that I use mostly with 3 monitors ... When I unplug them, all fences go to the laptop desktop ... and it's not really nice.

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Have you tried doing the Troubleshooting steps mention in the first post of this thread?: https://forums.stardock.com/528229

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

It's not really an issue or a bug. Currently software won't allow you to create different setups according the number of display you have. Here I ask for a feature that allow creating fence profile that can switch automaticaly considering the current setup and screens count.

From what I understand those steps are how you make Fences automatically adjust itself according to the system display count and layout. That is why the instruction need you to repeat the steps multiple time with different monitors count on each steps loop. Once that are all done. Fences should automatically adjust it layout to your display layout.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

This actually is an interesting idea. A lot of companies have begun to offer a lifetime subscription just like plex. If Stardock were to go that route it would probably be more geared to the industry norm in which lifetime subscriptions are usually at least 100 dollars. Still I think I would prefer paying that over a permanent license for a version that will be out of date after a year or more.

I am interested in how many people would actually pay for a 100 dollar lifetime subscription to Fences.

If it was a permanent lifetime subscription, I would actually pay $200 or even $300 to have that as long as there would be guarantees that It would never be removed from my account.

I love this Idea and I think Stardock should seriously consider it. 

Anyhow, that's my take.

wow. i paid maybe $5-10 for fences 3, and then another $2.49 to upgrade to 4. Annual subscription for fences5? And owning outright costs more than 3x the original cost? yeah not doing that.  I'm fine using 4. but seriously so many ppl will be torrenting this now.

Going to go ahead and not recommend that.

But yes the pricing model has shifted as both our audience and target/required development cycles have shifted over time. 

The core of most versions of Fences work for many many years (something like 8yrs for Fences 2/3) – so we're very much hoping those old copies continue to work for folks for a long time. We're not hoping for people to be forced to make an upgrade decision because something fundamental has broken. We potentially lose a customer when that happens. We're hoping rather that as we continue to enhance the product year over year, older-version users will finally decide it's worth it to upgrade, because they'll look at the value Fences provides (and not what they paid before) and decide that it's worth it. We have much more to gain as a business over time from that angle, rather than hope that people are *forced* to make a purchase decision based on Windows breaking us.

It's $10 per year not $10 per mo, so the subscription angle is really not as egregious as it seems, as much as I can relate to subscription fatigue. The price of things have changed over time before. Lots of software out there priced all over the map. So yes, it's up to the consumer/business to decide. Thanks for continuing to use the product and glad it's providing you some value. Payment helps to support its continued enhancement in return.

Dear "Dr W - Fences Support",

In regard to my original post, (Link: https://forums.stardock.com/523926/get;3948390 )

I purchased my upgrade to Fences 4 on December 23rd, 2021.

Is this something that I can get technical support for, or will the only advice I'll receive be that I upgrade to Fences 5?

For context, I did go through the troubleshooting section of your site quite thoroughly and the only relevant section I found was the following article...

Link: Fences troubleshooting page: "Spacing on Icons has changed"

I followed everything on that page to a T and it did not resolve the problem.

Again, I am on a fresh install of Windows 11 24H2.

So, I ask again.

With the fact that I purchased my license for Fences 4 almost 3 years ago and with the troubleshooting steps I have already tried, can Stardock provide technical support to me on this problem, or is my only option to upgrade to Fences 5?

I look forward to your response.

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I do believe if you look around the forum, we will notice that, we still do support previous version of Fences unless the issue is something those older version not capable to resolved. Please create a new thread on your issue and we will try to help you from that thread.

Thank you.
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

This thread is just about a full year old. Does that mean Stardock is getting closer to Fences 6? For example is it a good time to start listing a wish list of what features we would want to see?

Can I detail view my stuff yet without putting them in subfolders? If so, I am in. This feature has been wanted for years. Has anyone got this accomplished yet or is it a limitation of the shell? I'm still on v3 but would gladly pay lifetime if I can get this feature.

@cnewman402 – technical limitation. But, something we're actively interested in exploring down the road. Just would be very difficult to pull off for a relatively narrow use case.

Would it help if Fences could auto-convert a Fence into a folder (move the files into a subfolder), which then became a folder portal?

Awesome, glad you resolved your issue and thank you, appreciate you taking your time to report this.  

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

You mentioned the issue happen since Windows update v24H2 which something new introduce that causing the issue in your system. Do know that Fences 5 recently introduced a new layout engine, which work better on managing the Fences layout. I believe what you seeing, where the layout correct itself after few moment is the work of the new layout engine, which does not develop in Fences 4.

You might need to change your auto layout setting to "Store my layout on per-monitor configuration basis". For reference please refer to this thread https://forums.stardock.com/528229/

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant