Fences is a software utility

Utility software

Utility software is system software designed to help analyze, configure, optimize or maintain a computer. A single piece of utility software is usually called a utility or tool....

 for Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 that helps to organize icons

Computer icon

A computer icon is a pictogram displayed on a computer screen and used to navigate a computer system or mobile device. The icon itself is a small picture or symbol serving as a quick, intuitive representation of a software tool, function or a data file accessible on the system. It functions as an...

 on the desktop

Desktop environment

In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. These GUIs help the user in easily accessing, configuring, and modifying many important and frequently accessed...

. It is developed by Stardock

Stardock

Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market between 1997 and 1998...

 and distributed as part of their Object Desktop

Object Desktop

Object Desktop is a software subscription service created by Stardock for OS/2 and relaunched for Windows in 1997....

 suite. A freeware

Freeware

Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...

 version is available.

Functionality

Fences defines translucent areas on the desktop that contain groups of icons. These fences can be individually created, named, moved, and resized — they will also display a scroll bar if necessary.

Double-click

Double-click

A double-click is the act of pressing a computer mouse button twice quickly without moving the mouse. Double-clicking allows two different actions to be associated with the same mouse button...

ing on the desktop hides all non-excluded fences and icons, while another double-click causes them to reappear. Snapshots can restore fences to a particular configuration after use.

Reception

A PC World

PC World (magazine)

PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...

reviewer praised the free edition of Fences, saying that "it wasn't five minutes after installing this program that I realized I'll be using it for the rest of my computing life. It's that good." A preview edition was listed as TechSpot

TechSpot

TechSpot is a computer enthusiast website founded in 1998 by Julio J. Franco. TechSpot is updated daily with news from the technology and computer industry, reviews of PC products, software downloads and device driver updates...

's download of the week in February 2009.

Download.com

Download.com

Download.com is an Internet download directory website, launched in 1996 as a part of CNET. Originally, the domain was download.com.com. The domain download.com attracted at least 113 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study....

 liked the snapshots, and the ability to change colour schemes, but criticized the process of fence creation and the inability to sort icons into fences by type — a feature added in the Pro edition. Some ZDNet

ZDNet

ZDNet is a business technology news website published by CBS Interactive, along with TechRepublic and SmartPlanet. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991 as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication owned by CNET...

 readers also noticed visual similarities to the Folderview feature introduced in KDE

KDE

KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...

4.1.