3 Tips for Using Stardock's Fences 3

Fences, Stardock’s desktop organization app, has become quite a fan favorite since it was first released. The app lets you automatically organize your desktop icons and shortcuts into fences to keep your desktop area clean and organized. The latest version, Fences 3, added several new features, including compatibility with Windows 10.

Fences has lots of cool features to help you organize your desktop just the way you want it. I’m going to share my top 3 tips for using Fences.

Save space with Roll-up Fences

This is a new feature introduced in version 3, and it’s probably one of my top favorites. Fences already makes your desktop much more organized, and the roll-ups take it a bit further. A roll-up fence does just what the name implies: with this setting, the entire fence will roll-up and just display the title bar for the fence. This saves you even more desktop space. To see the contents of the fence, you simply move the mouse over it. This is especially useful if you have lots of fences, or a fence that has items you don’t access too often.

Access frequently used folders with Folder Portals

This is another feature I use all the time. If you have a folder that you use often, you can create a fence in order to have access to that folder's contents right on your desktop. You can now navigate the folder structure right within the fence, making portals even more useful.

There are several ways to create a folder portal, but I just drag my mouse to create a fence and select the create a folder portal option. Other methods can be found in the Fences configuration.

Customize the look of your fences

I like to customize the items I have on my desktop, and Fences allows several different customization aspects to help make my desktop look the way I want it to. In the Fences configuration screen, you can select from a variety of options such as the background style and color, label customization, and more. In Windows 10, you can also have translucent backgrounds in the fences.