Navigating the desktop trying to find the correct shortcut icons to launch an application can sometime be a chores, if you have a overcrowded desktop filled with plenty of icons. With Fences, you can now organize your desktop into a more manageable manner and even hide your icons when you have no use for them.

Fences is a freeware from Stardock, the company behind the popular ObjectDock. What this application does is that It allows you to create several KDE4-style sticky canvases (Fences) on the desktop that act as containers to store your icons. You can assign each fence a category and drag and drop the respective icons to the canvas.

After you have installed Fences, a window will appear to help you setup Fences on your desktop. There aren’t many options to configure and there are clear and detail instructions listed in the window, so you should be able to setup your Fences in no time.

The default layout comes with two fences of which you can resize and move them around in the desktop. If that is not enough for you, you can also create extra fences by right-clicking the mouse. Simply right-click the mouse and drag it across the desktop to create the canvas. Once you release the mouse, you will see an option “Create New Fence Here“. Selecting that option makes the new fence appear.

When you have no use for the icons, you can hide the fences by doing a quick double-clicking on the desktop. This will hide all the icons and allows you to appreciate your beautiful wallpaper. To retrieve the fences, simply double-click the desktop again.

On the configuration side, while there are several settings that you can configure, the one that impresses me most is the snapshot function. You can take a snapshot of your desktop at any point of time and get it to restore to a previous setting. There is also a pre-install snapshot that shows your desktop condition before installing Fences. When you uninstall Fences, it will restore your desktop to the original setting.

Overall, Stardock Fences is a simple application that allows you to organize your desktop easily and efficiently. While it does not reduce the number of icons on your desktop, it sure does provide a good way for you to organize, find and access your shortcut easier and faster.

Stardock Fences is free and works in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and on all 32-bit and 64-bit machine.

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