Hello,

I have forwarded your report to the Stardock support team for their review and recommendations.

Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

We really do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

I am afraid there is nothing we can do about that - it seems it is their issue to fix.

----------------
Sean Drohan
Stardock Customer Service Manager

First to be clear, are you saying it is their issue to fix and not an issue that needs to be fixed over there?

Second did you even notice the part where I say I paid actual money for an upgrade I can't use?  No comments on that?  Really?  Because that's the real issue here. 

First I request that you make it clear to future buyers of your product that your product is (and will remain until further notice) incompatible with systems running Forcepoint or WebSense.  Second, I request that you post instructions on how to check if your system is running one of these programs.  Third, I request that these warning be prominently displayed prior to users spending actual money.  Fourth, I request that the cryptic warning message be changed to something more understandable.  Such as, "Fences is incompatible with this system because Forcepoint or Websense is running".  

And do you see where I'm going here?  I don't believe that it is good business practice to state that "This software will not work on your system because some other program is messing it up"  and "We are not able to fix this problem because it is someone else's problem really."

If that is the attitude you are going to take you might as well take the damn thing off the market because ultimately your developers need some serious reeducation.  

I don't particularly want a refund.  What I WANT is the functionality that Fences provides.  Apparently you all have no desire to accommodate me (and anyone else working at this company) by creating an update to Fences that works with Forcepoint.

You say that the number of users of Fences is miniscule that it is not worth investing the time and effort into fixing the problem.  I posit that the number of user is miniscule, because Fences does not work.  My company imposes the need to run Forcepoint on its computers.  It would approve Fences if it worked in this environment, opening up the market to hundreds of thousands of potential customers. 

Also I had no problem finding people on this forum who are having similar problems to mine.  If that wasn't the case you wouldn't already know that Forcepoint was a problem.  So, I think the issue is bigger then you are making out. 

Fine,  You will not or cannot help me get Fences running on my machine.  Please let me know of any alternatives to Fences that provide similar functionality that WILL work with Forcepoint.

Or, open source a version of the Fences code so that the community can fix this problem. 

I consider this a productive discussion.  

I am not being flippant here; why is the onus on Stardock to modify Fences and not the makers of Forcepoint to modify their app? 

Frankly, if I had the ability to communicate with Forcepoint I would.  Are YOU in communication with Forcepoint?  Because I am not an administrator of Forcepoint on my corporate network I have no authorized way to communicate with them.  

Are you claiming that Fences has a larger install base than Forcepoint?  Tens of millions of paid users?

It was only when you introduced a single app, Forcepoint, that it caused a problem. 

As I said, Fences worked great on Win 7.  To my knowledge, the company has been using Forcepoint for some time now.  And as long as I was on Win7 Fences worked just fine alongside Focepoint (or Websense).  It was only when I was upgraded to Win 10 that the Forecepoint/Fences issue reared its ugly head.  

Honestly, I don't care who should do the workaround. 

Does Fences need to do something shady to achieve its functionality such that it violates the proscriptions of my Anti-Virus software (i.e. it behaves like a virus on my system)?  What security vulnerabilities does Fences therefore open in order to do what it does?  I think your entire install base needs to know the answer to that question.  

Again Michael, I want Fences to work for you too - just as much - I hope you can believe that.  We just can't create work-arounds (if even possible with Forcepoint) for every app that introduces a conflict with Fences.  We are thankful that very very few ever have.

You make is sound like an issue that is too small for your vaulted position to address.  So open source an old version of your codebase!  Let the community of developers who do have an interest in a work-around work on this issue.  I promise you there are about 10,000 software engineers like myself out there that think this issue might be worth addressing (see?  I can use biased statistical estimations as well).  I think you would be surprised at how quickly a solution can be found.

Michael,

I found this as a possibility for 'white-listing' Fences for Forcepoint:

https://www.websense.com/content/support/library/web/hosted/admin_guide/ep_bypass.aspx

This, in particular, is what attracted me to it:

'If you have deployed the endpoint client to your end users, occasionally some applications do not work properly in conjunction with endpoint enforcement.'

I would like to see what your admins could do with it, or if I am looking at the wrong spot, that they would know how to do it another way.  If you could keep me posted, it would be most appreciated.

----------------
Sean Drohan
Stardock Customer Service Manager