Screenshot of winver.exe with Windows version and build:

2. I hide my fences (so I can see my background image on the Windows desktop). As I said, some icons are excepted from the hiding, most notably Office apps.

3. Not sure what value there is to giving you a screen shot of what happens when I double click on an excepted icon when fences are hidden. What happens is that all fences unroll. But here is a screenshot with Fences hidden but some icons excepted:

and here is a screenshot of what it looks like when I double click on the Word2016 icon. Obviously, I don't actually see the rolled out fences, since Word starts up very fast (SSD). But when I shut down Word, or Win+d back to the Desktop, this is what I see; nearly all the fences have been rolled out The two that are not rolled it, I have set to not roll out, but their Title bars should not be showing (as in the screen shot  above.

So my question is: why do the Fences roll out when I double click on a program icon? They should only roll out when I double click on an empty area of the Desktop.

David

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

I cant seem to reproduce what you are seeing.  Please tell me if I am recreating the conditions correctly:

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/2019-08-23_08-53-16.mp4

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Okay, that has solved the problem, though I have been using my method for years, and do not recall having this problem before (the fences did not "unhide" when I double clicked on an icon in a hidden fence).

It does bother me, that when my fences are unhidden, I don't get a clean lined up grouping of icons inside and outside of the fences. Outlook 2016 is not in line with OneNote 2016 (in the Fence). Not vertically for the top of the screen, not horizontally anywhere. "No, I don't have OCD, I prefer CDO because it is just better in alphabetical order."  

Also, sometimes when the computer restarts or "wakes up" , some of the icons have moved to the empty space on right side or above the fences, even though the Fences have not moved.

Last night I did not turn off my computer, so it went into hybernate. When I "woke it up" this morning, this is what I saw. I had left the Desktop in the state of the first picture. The MicroSoft Apps Fence is in the same location, but there is apparently no longer any room for the Outlook icon to the right of the fence (visible or invisible) Same with the fence below it (Graphics, Video & Audi) which has "crowded" Magix Photo & Graphic... icon to a previously non existent empty space above the fence. You can imagin what this looks like when I hide the Fences. I have to manually fix this everey time I restart or "wake up", which is way more work, than just double clicking to get rid of the initial unwanted "Unhide fences" snafu.

I realized something else today as I was restoring my intended layout of Icons and Fences. When the Fences are in an "unhidden state" (so visible), and I double-click on an icon in a Fence, this is not seen as a double-click to hide the fences. However, when I double click on an icon that is excepted from being hidden IN a Fence, that IS seen as a double click to unhide the fences. See, the logic escapes me, plus it seems like the effect of a double-click on an icon IN a Fence can be recognized and ignored, but the programmer just forgot to apply that condition to this set of circumstances. Once again, I don't remember ever having this problem before I installed Fences on my new computer two months ago. Also (again): I don't know if it did occur, and I just didn't notice it. However, it seems like something that should be included in the next update, because the method of placing excepted icons outside of Fences just creates a mess. I will be undoing this in a few days.

David

Okay, just noticed something else annoying. When I am using a program like Word or Outlook (obviously full screen), while my Desktop has the Fences hidden (double clicked on the desktop to hide them), the best way that I know to get back to the Desktop to start another program (let's say Excel) is to press Windows + d. I have been using this ever since the the Desktop disappeared from the Alt Tab icons (years ago), and the "button" at the right edge of the taskbar (to switch to the desktop) become too small and unreliable (a year or two ago). When I press Windows +d all hidden fences and icons become unhidden. In fact, while attempting to find the "button" on the right edge of the taskbar, I discovered that it is still there, still unreliable, but when you do finally get it to work, it also unhides all the hidden fences and icons. All of his is unwanted behavior. Is anybody from Stardock Software reading this string, so that these matters can be fixed? What I want is that when I have chosen to hide the fences and some icons, that they stay hidden until I unhide them. That they not become unhidden by normal usage of my mouse or computer.

David

Thanks Basj,

That bottom setting solved all the issues. Can't imagne why it took so long to figure that out for me? But I am glad to have it all solved. I set the time to 30 seconds rather than to 1, I tried to checkmark the "Show icons at startup" setting, but it is greyed out.

I am not seeing a way for me to mark this post as answered. I did give you "karma".  

David