Fences

[vontreigo]

Nice little program to help organize your workspace

http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

[Simmy]

Looks nice - I'd certainly give it a go if I had more than 1 icon on my desktop :p

Saved and downloaded for another time though :)

[Andyuk2007]

Looks nice - I'd certainly give it a go if I had more than 1 icon on my desktop :p

Saved and downloaded for another time though :)

you mean to say you don't have 1 single icon on your desktop :eek: how can you be that tidy ?:p

[Simmy]

I'm really anal about my file organisation :p I've got the recycle bin on my desktop, but everything else goes into 1 of dozens of subfolders in "My Documents".

I almost cry when I see customers with icons literally disappearing off the screen. I have to fight the urge to reorganise everything for them!

[Resler]

I don't have ANY desktop icons. I keep shortcuts to a few select programs, the recycle bin and a shortcut to a folder that I keep all of my files in all on the quick launch toolbar. I also have a solid black background. I don't think there's a reason to have a background image (or a screen saver for that matter) wasting system resources when I'm either using my computer for something, or I turn the monitor off when I'm not. Saves money from not running a monitor when I'm not using it and I assume it would save the LCD back light from dying out.

[Andyuk2007]

I'm really anal about my file organisation :p I've got the recycle bin on my desktop, but everything else goes into 1 of dozens of subfolders in "My Documents".

I almost cry when I see customers with icons literally disappearing off the screen. I have to fight the urge to reorganise everything for them!

but...but...simon its quicker to double click on desktop :p Anyway back on topic that programs looks really good i'll keep that on my external in case i wanna use it.

[Simmy]

I can rarely see the desktop tbh - I always have 4 or 5 applications open on each screen. So I stick to quick launch icons and pinning the most frequently used apps to the start menu...and my bottomless hierarchy of Document folders :D

[abe]

this is what my desktop looks like now, the backround will change soon, every 30 seconds.
http://www.technibble.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=2&pictureid=31
The shortcut icon on the top left hand corner is a folder where i keep all my recently worked stuff, so if i download a prog, i unzip, then install... and put the zip in the folder, i then delete the unzipped folder, the same goes to pic's I'm working on, i throw them all into, the shortcuts folder, and clean that folder once a month, it keeps the desktop neat, I hate coming to peoples computers and finding half the screen taken up by icons. I had a guy complaining that his icons were disappearing, i came over and found the the screen was full and anything added moved the others around and of the screen. :D :eek:

[SOHO-NZ]

after 2 minutes- I'm in love with Fences.

[superhans]

I started using Fences last week and I love it.

People favour different organisation methods. I had a sparse desktop for a long time but actually like having frequently accessed files close to hand. And on desktop, with a Win+M key stroke they're right there.

I use Launchy for application launching but still like prefer the windows taskbar as a backup to programs like Rocket dock etc

I second the post about users desktops being swamped with icons, I have to restrain myself from tidying them up sometimes. All those old setup programs, pictures and documents on the desktop, freaks me out!

Fences is easy to use and has a nice look, wouldn't class it as a repair tool though.

[georgenoise]

I don't keep icons on the desktop either. Everything is hotkeyed that i use, if not i use the start bar which is also heavily reorganized. There are no folders on it just direct links.

[vermonter]

Just a heads up to any user of Fences:

I started using the free version of Fences when I read this post last year. Really liked it as a desktop organizational tool, and decided to upgrade to the $20 paid version as it has a couple of nice enhancements.

I didn't read the fine print, they force you to install a semi-spyware kind of program called Impulse to do the download from their web site. And if you uninstall Impulse, it removes access to Fences.

Just can't believe that a software developer would do that kind of thing these days... I've asked for my money back and they are offering only a 75% refund as it states in the fine print that Impulse is used "to install and update the software".

[Blues]

Impulse is Stardock's equivilent of Steam and it is nothing like spyware you could maybe argue a similarity to adware but thats a stretch if you ask me. Impulse is a digital distribution store front and while it may have some hooks that it is required for thier software it is still nothing I would be afriad of I have it on my desktop as I have 2 Stardock PC games.

[vermonter]

Thanks for the heads up on that Blues (I guess it shows my ignorance when it comes to PC gaming.) Good to know Impulse is legit, but I'd still avoid anything like it on my business desktop for performance reasons.

So it looks like the free version of Fences is good enough for me for now... It does the the job, minus a few bells and whistles of the Pro version.

[iisjman07]

I don't know how I've lived without this! This should be a sticky; one of the best apps I've ever used!

[Blues]

Thanks for the heads up on that Blues (I guess it shows my ignorance when it comes to PC gaming.) Good to know Impulse is legit, but I'd still avoid anything like it on my business desktop for performance reasons.

So it looks like the free version of Fences is good enough for me for now... It does the the job, minus a few bells and whistles of the Pro version.

I did some research the full version was standalone until v0.99 then with out warning or informing people they required Impulse. I have on my PC Impulse set to not run on startup and it doesn't have to run for my games. I run it to update my games and see if there is anything I want to buy off it, so far there hasn't been.