Should I remove Fences 2?

What percent of users and experts removed it?

3% remove it97% keep it

Overall Sentiment

Good

What do people think about it?

(click star to rate)

How common is it?

Global Rank #4,139

United States Rank #4,068

Reach 0.1295%

Lifespan of installation (until removal)

< 8.73 days

257.56 days >

Average installed length: 135.33 days

Versions

Version	Distribution
2.13	0.04%
2.01 Registered	0.04%
2.01	90.33%
2.00.2	3.29%
2.00	5.33%
1.80	0.98%

Typically installed together

Other programs by Stardock

Rankings

#4,134 Adobe Flash Professional CS6
#4,135 Nero Express by Nero AG
#4,136 TunnelBear
#4,137 Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications Design-Time 3.0
#4,138 HP User Guides 0148 by Hewlett-Packard
#4,139 Fences 2 by Stardock
#4,140 XSplit by SplitMediaLabs
#4,141 CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3
#4,142 Canon MX920 series On-screen Manual
#4,143 4shared Desktop
#4,144 KB4023057 by Microsoft

Fences 2

from Stardock Corporation

Remove Fences 2 by Stardock

What is Fences 2? (from Stardock)

Fences® is a program that helps you organize your desktop and hide your icons when they're not in use. Fences is the world's most popular desktop enhancement for Windows®. What makes it so compelling is that what it does is so obviously useful and necessary that it is amazing that no one has thought of it before. You c... Read more

Overview

Fences 2 is a program developed by Stardock. The most used version is 2.01, with over 98% of all installations currently using this version. Upon installation and setup, it defines an auto-start registry entry which makes this program run on each Windows boot for all user logins. It adds a background controller service that is set to automatically run. Delaying the start of this service is possible through the service manager. A scheduled task is added to Windows Task Scheduler in order to launch the program at various scheduled times (the schedule varies depending on the version). The software is designed to connect to the Internet and adds a Windows Firewall exception in order to do so without being interfered with. When installed, it will add a context menu handler to the Windows shell in order to provide quick access to the program. The main program executable is Fences.exe. The software installer includes 37 files and is usually about 26.49 MB (27,773,651 bytes). In comparison to the total number of users, most PCs are running the OS Windows 7 (SP1) as well as Windows 10. While about 49% of users of Fences 2 come from the United States, it is also popular in Germany and United Kingdom.

Program details

URL: www.stardock.com

Installation folder: C:\Program Files\Stardock\Fences

Uninstaller: "C:\Program Files\Stardock\Fences\uninstall.exe" "/C:C:\Program Files\Stardock\Fences\Uninstall\uninstall.xml"

Estimated size: 26.49 MB

Files installed by Fences 2

Program executable:	Fences.exe
Name:	Fences
	Fences Settings
Path:	C:\Program Files\Stardock\Fences\Fences.exe
MD5:	d547c84beb1fc5707825243f3219561f

Additional files:

SasUpgrade.exe - Stardock Application Services (Sas License Upgrade)
SdAppServices.dll
SdAppServices_x64.dll
SdDisplay.exe - SdDisplay
Stardock.ApplicationServices.dll - Stardock.ApplicationServices
FencesControlPanel.dll - FencesConfig Module (Stardock Fences CPL Shell Extension)
FencesControlPanel64.dll
FencesRegRes.dll - Stardock Fences (Fences DLC Resources)
sddlc.dll - Stardock SDDLC (SDDLC)
sddlc64.dll
SDActivate.exe - Activate (Product Activation)
UninstHelper.exe - Impulse (Add/Remove Programs Helper)
Fences.exe - Fences (Fences Settings)
FencesMenu.dll - Stardock Fences Shell Extension
FencesMenu64.dll
DesktopDock.dll - Stardock Fences
DesktopDock64.dll
uninstall.exe (by Indigo Rose) - Setup Factory Runtime (Setup Application)
lua5.1.dll
VistaBridgeLibrary.dll

Behaviors exhibited

2 Context Menu Handlers

FencesMenu.dll added to Windows Explorer under the name 'FencesShellExt' with a class of {1984DD45-52CF-49cd-AB77-18F378FEA264}.
FencesMenu64.dll added to Windows Explorer under the name 'FencesShellExt' with a class of {1984DD45-52CF-49cd-AB77-18F378FEA264}.

Scheduled Task

Fences.exe is scheduled as a task with the class '{A2A5CF50-813C-4CF1-8E66-69FC428F81BB}' (runs on registration).

Scheduled Task (Boot/Login)

Fences.exe is automatically launched at startup through a scheduled task named Fences.

Service

Fences.exe runs as a service named 'Fences' (Fences).

Startup File (User Run)

Fences.exe is loaded in the current user (HKCU) registry as an auto-starting executable named 'Fences' and executes as "C:\Program Files\Stardock\Fences\Fences.exe" /startup.

Startup File (All Users Run)

Fences.exe is loaded in the all users (HKLM) registry as a startup file name 'Fences' which loads as "C:\Program Files\Stardock\Fences\Fences.exe" /startup.

Windows Firewall Allowed Program

Fences.exe is added as a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Stardock\Fences\Fences.exe'.

Resource utilization averages
Show technical details

Fences.exe
Total CPU:	0.3611724445%	0.031193% average
Kernel CPU:	0.27185023%	0.016088% average
User CPU:	0.08932222%	0.015104% average

How do I remove Fences 2?

You can uninstall Fences 2 from your computer by using the Add/Remove Program feature in the Window's Control Panel.

On the Start menu (for Windows 8, right-click the screen's bottom-left corner), click Control Panel, and then, under Programs, do one of the following:

Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall a Program.
Windows XP: Click Add or Remove Programs.

When you find the program Fences 2, click it, and then do one of the following:

Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall.
Windows XP: Click the Remove or Change/Remove tab (to the right of the program).

Follow the prompts. A progress bar shows you how long it will take to remove Fences 2.

OS VERSIONS

Win 7 (SP1) 64%

Win Vista 0%

HOW IT STARTS

Automatically starts? Yes

(Found in the run registry)

USER ACTIONS

Uninstall it 3%

Keep it 97%

Windows

Which Windows OS versions does it run on?

Windows 7	67.80%
Windows 10	28.87%
Windows Vista	1.68%
Windows XP	1.65%
Which OS releases does it run on?
Windows 7 Home Premium	26.99%
Windows 7 Ultimate	23.17%
Windows 7 Professional	14.87%
Windows 8 Pro	5.43%
Windows 8.1 Pro	4.45%
Windows 8 Pro with Media ...	3.23%

Geography

48.78% of installs come from the United States

Which countries install it?

United States	48.78%
Germany	4.05%
United Kingdom	3.82%
Canada	3.68%
France	3.21%
Italy	3.04%
Australia	1.76%
Spain	1.66%
Netherlands	1.62%
Brazil	1.55%
Taiwan	1.45%
Iran	1.45%
Belgium	1.28%
India	1.08%

PC manufacturers

What PC manufacturers (OEMs) have it installed?

Hewlett-Packard	23.73%
Dell	22.95%
ASUS	14.38%
Acer	13.67%
GIGABYTE	11.26%
Toshiba	4.67%
Lenovo	2.83%
Samsung	2.62%
Intel	1.63%
Alienware	1.27%
MSI	0.99%
Common models
HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook ...	7.07%
ASUS All Series	5.93%
HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook ...	5.74%
HP Pavilion g7 Notebook P...	2.68%
Dell XPS 8500	2.68%
HP Pavilion g6 Notebook P...	2.10%

About Stardock

Stardock is a software development company that initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but switch to Windows.

Publisher URL: www.stardock.com

Learn more about Stardock Corporation

1 comment

Jo•over a year ago

I really like this software as a means of keeping software on the desktop organized the way I like it ordered. I like being able to hide all the icons then double-click or mouse-over to show them (paid version).