rjv4

Join Date 11/2013

Fences blocking blocking use of touch (by finger) on desktop

This is a serious bug in that Fences directs the input of hand or finger touches to the desktop to Fences. I use Nexus Ultimate which is docked on the bottom of the screen since it turned out to be more efficient in the user of computer resources. When I use my Surface Pro 4 as a tablet (which comes with Windows 10 Pro) I can no longer access Nexus when using SP4 as a tablet. I can only access Nexus with keyboard attached, using the mouse.

If I tap on the screen, Fences responds but nothing else.

I was asked to post this problem here though I cannot imagine a workaround for this problem. Then again maybe someone else has managed to get around Fences and its greed when it comes to the input using our hands!

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AzDude

Join Date 11/2002

+559

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

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sdrohan

Join Date 10/2012

+732

Hello,

This is a serious bug in that Fences directs the input of hand or finger touches to the desktop to Fences.

We first need to determine if Fences has anything to do with the issue... If you disable Fences, does it still happen or work:

If you uninstall Fences, reboot, does it still happen?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

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No, it doesn't. The problem goes away. I also never had the problem before (quite a few years now) but only currently with Fences.

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sdrohan

Join Date 10/2012

+732

Quoting rjv4,

reply 3

No, it doesn't. The problem goes away. I also never had the problem before (quite a few years now) but only currently with Fences.

The problem goes away after what action, rjv4? I gave you two things to try.

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Sean Drohan
Stardock Customer Service Manager

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Sean, if you just reboot it, it does not go away. You have to uninstall to get rid of the problem. I also gave you the extra information which I think is very relevant: that it never happened before. That is important since had it every happened before, I should go and complain to Microsoft.

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sdrohan

Join Date 10/2012

+732

Quoting rjv4,

reply 5

Sean, if you just reboot it, it does not go away.

But that was not the test requested; it was first to disable Fences then to uninstall if it still did not work.

Quoting rjv4,

reply 5

I also gave you the extra information which I think is very relevant: that it never happened before.

While good to know, that would put Nexus and Windows (and any other setting or 3rd party app) on the block more than Fences as it has not been updated in some time (version 3.09 has been out for many many months).

If you run winver.exe, what version and build number do you have for Windows?

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Sean Drohan
Stardock Customer Service Manager

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Version 1809, build 17763.253. I haven't had Fences that long but seeing as there was a major Windows upgrade recently (in October), it may be that Fences inherited a problem.

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JcRabbit

Join Date 03/2001

+290

Hi Sean, rjv4!

Rjv4, I'm Jorge from Winstep and Sean asked me to step in to see if I could help.

Nexus Ultimate is not 'touch aware', that is, it has no code specifically designed to handle touch screens and/or input by touch. As such, it relies solely on 'translations' between touch and mouse input made by Windows itself (e.g.; one tap = left mouse button click).

Given Microsoft's current track record of constantly making 'under the hood' changes to Windows and that what you are experiencing didn't happen before, I'm pretty sure the update to Windows might have had something to do with it, and not Fences itself. Or perhaps you changed a setting somewhere and you no longer remember having done so?

Exactly HOW are you activating Nexus when in tablet mode? Can you please describe the gesture?

Also, Nexus allows you to customize many of the parameters for edge bumps and edge swipes, have you tried playing with those already?

Nexus Ultimate Preferences -> Behavior tab -> Activation Settings -> Edge Bump Settings / Edge Swipe Settings.

Thanks,

Jorge Coelho
Winstep Xtreme - Xtreme Power!
http://www.winstep.net - Winstep Software Technologies
https://forums.winstep.net - Winstep Forums

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Jorge,

When in desktop tablet mode, finger movements are essentially the same as mouse movements. More importantly, deactivate or remove Fences and swiping down works normally. Activate it and it does not.

Note that I installed the last major upgrade shortly after it was announced. Namely, quite a few months ago. So it did not affect access to Nexus. Also, I haven't changed anything with Nexus. I need it to work well, which it has been.

Remember that Fences also interprets swiping movements, so I would imagine there would be a good chance that it configuration might be getting in the way, particularly as it has not been updated in a long time.

I hope this helps,
rjv4

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JcRabbit

Join Date 03/2001

+290

Quoting rjv4,

reply 9

When in desktop tablet mode, finger movements are essentially the same as mouse movements. More importantly, deactivate or remove Fences and swiping down works normally. Activate it and it does not.

Yes, swiping down is basically a screen edge bump with the mouse pointer.

Thing is, do you want to find a culprit or are you more interested in actually solving the problem?

You could try backing up your Nexus Ultimate settings first (Preferences -> Advanced tab -> Backup) and then tinkering a bit with the Edge Bump settings (for instance, increasing the distance from screen edge, maximum travel distance, etc) even if only to see what happens.

For the very same reason, you could also try using the alternate edge swipe activation (although it's completely unintuitive if you are actually using touch instead of a mouse pointer, as it requires you to swipe the edge horizontally instead of vertically - I really should add a 'touch' option so you can swipe vertically).

I don't use touch (don't even have a touch screen here to test) so even I am curious as to what might be causing that issue.

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sdrohan

Join Date 10/2012

+732

Quoting rjv4,

reply 9

More importantly, deactivate or remove Fences and swiping down works normally. Activate it and it does not.

You may want to test putting Fences in a default state with a purge / reinstall:

https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#reinstalling

You can restore a snapshot to get icons back to where they are after.

If that fails, test with the following Disabled:

Desktop Pages: Disable
Roll-up Fences: Disable
Quick-hide: Disable
Layout & Snapping : Touch-based layout: Disable

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

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The one thing I have not heard is why everything works normally without Fences and then it no longer works with Fences. JcRabbit, explain that please, rather than accusing me of not wanting to solve the problem (particularly as I have enough of solving problems when coding and debugging). Of course I want to solve my problem, otherwise I wouldn't have reported it and instead simply removed Fences and continued either using nothing or else another solution.

Translated: everything works very well with the mouse. If the mouse and the finger are the same, both should work the same way as I would imagine the pixel position to be the same. Clearly, something is happening when Fences is running.

What may be occurring is that the desktop does not get the focus when using the finger because of Fences. Often if the desktop does not get the focus Nexus will not respond, even with the mouse, with or without Fences. Clearly Fences needs to examine the message queue and pass it on if it is not related to Fences. When you use the finger the mouse's activities would be activated only upon contact. Because of that I also tried to touch the pad and stay touching so the right messages will get through. No matter. It's fine without Fences, not fine with.

It may be that because of the update the timing response has changed thereby resulting in Fences not being able to make sure the messages it examines are quickly sent on to be accessed by other windows.

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JcRabbit

Join Date 03/2001

+290

Quoting rjv4,

reply 12

Sorry if you felt I was accusing you of something, I was just trying to be witty and re-direct your focus to where it should really be.

It's only by experimenting to see what happens that we might get a clue to the cause. Right now I have no idea, you have no idea, and Sean probably has no idea either. You simply assume - with some reason to do so, granted - that it's caused by Fences because it stops happening when Fences is disabled, and you might be right - but you might also be wrong. Things with computers are rarely as linear as they seem - sometimes it's a weird interaction with 3rd party applications.

And this is why I asked you to re-direct your focus.

Quoting rjv4,

reply 12

See, this assumption is not correct - Nexus does not need to have the focus (or for the desktop to have the focus) to respond to edge bumps. It constantly monitors the position of the mouse and pressed mouse buttons on a system-wide basis, and that is what it responds to.

Here's a clue already, the fact that this might happen even when Fences is not running.

I suppose you could change/block what information Nexus (and other applications) gets with a global hook, but I am not sure about it or even if Fences does anything like that.

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To answer your questions, I've been using Nexus for quite a while now, as a tablet and not -- and it always worked. I installed Fences and guess what: it gets fenced off! Where just once in a while, okay. Note that I tested quite a lot before pointing out that there is a problem.

As to not getting a message, when one or more windows are open I have often had to click on the desktop for Nexus to respond. If the applications don't send the message on in a timely and correct fashion, there is no way that Nexus or any other app will get the message!

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