DayuanJiang/PecoFence v0.2.4

PecoFence v0.2.4

on GitHub

PecoFence 0.2.4 lets the icons that are in no fence stand on the desktop like Windows' own, brings icon size and spacing sliders, hidden labels, infotips and a dozen options you asked for, and fixes fences hiding after Refresh, fences changing size between monitors, freezes with a full Recycle Bin and crashes with Liquid Glass on AMD graphics.

Highlights

• Icons on the desktop, like Windows' own (requested in in-app feedback 93, in #152 by @lsntruk and #158 by @w19996, and by everyone who wanted the Recycle Bin back on the desktop). Arrange like the desktop in the Desktop fence's menu (also in Settings → Fences) takes away its title row, glass and edges: the icons that are in no fence stand down columns from the top-left corner of the monitor with white names, as with Windows' Auto arrange icons, and flow around your fences. A click beside them reaches the Windows desktop and its right-click menu; dragging an icon into a fence takes it off the desktop, and dragging it out puts it back in the columns; a rectangle drawn on the empty desktop selects icons. New configurations start with it on; a configuration from an earlier version keeps the Desktop fence until you turn it on.
• Icon size, spacing and labels (#156, contributed by @uvw). Icon size in Settings → Fences is a slider from 24 to 128 px that snaps to the menu's 32, 48, 64 and 96; Icon spacing goes from narrower than Compact to well past Spacious; Icon labels shows one, two or three lines, or Hidden: each cell shrinks to a square around its icon, and the name shows in the tooltip. Default icon size in Settings → General is the same slider. Older versions refuse every pecofence-cli settings set while the default size is between the four, and draw fences with hidden labels with broken cells.
• Infotips. Resting the pointer on an icon shows its name, type, size and date, as on the desktop, and a shortened tab shows its full title. The tips look like Explorer's, turn dark in dark mode and follow Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items in Folder Options.
• Folders first (#143, contributed by @uvw, requested by @roncli in #139). Sort by → Folders first in the fence menu keeps folders above files in every order, also with Reverse order; the Recycle Bin and the other system items stay above them.
• Show the Windows desktop for now (in-app feedback 84, 42 and 70). Record a shortcut for it in Settings → General (it has none until you choose one), or use the tray menu or pecofence-cli windows-desktop start / end: it hides every fence and shows the Windows desktop icons so you can work on the Windows desktop, and the next press brings the fences back. Nothing of it is saved.
• Custom colors (#140, contributed by @xan2622, requested by @roncli in #138). Icon tint, Tint and Tab color have a Custom color swatch that opens the Windows color dialog, where any color can be picked or typed in.
• Italian (#130, contributed by @MichelePezza, an AI translation reviewed by hand). Settings → General → Appearance → Display language offers Italiano, and Use system setting picks it when Windows shows Italian. The setup speaks Italian too, and the online manual, the website, the README and the Microsoft Store listing have Italian versions.
• Single-click opening (in-app feedback 86, 42 and 73). When File Explorer is set to Single-click to open an item (point to select), fences behave like the desktop: a click opens an icon, the pointer is a hand over icons, and resting on an icon selects it. PecoFence follows the Windows setting and has no setting of its own.
• Hide when empty for every fence (in-app feedback 88 and 48). A fence with it on goes away with its last icon and comes back at its place when an icon is filed into it. It was only offered for the Desktop fence.
• Expand upward (#142, contributed by @thiagofmde, requested by @Playmyone in #125). With Fence options… → Expand upward, a rolled-up fence opens upward from its title row when it fits, so one resting on the taskbar no longer opens behind it. With Push the fences below down when one expands, the fences above it slide up out of its way.
• Larger Windows text (requested on appinn). The List and Details views grow with Windows' Text size (15 and 18 px text at 125 % and 150 %, as in Explorer), and item names in the icon view are no longer enlarged twice.
• Keep Windows desktop icons hidden when PecoFence closes (#144, contributed by @uvw), under Hide Windows desktop icons in Settings → General, keeps the Windows icons from flashing at sign-in before PecoFence starts. While PecoFence isn't running, the desktop then shows no icons: before uninstalling the Store edition, deleting a portable copy or going back to an older version, turn it off and exit PecoFence, or afterwards right-click the desktop and choose View → Show desktop icons.
• Centered icons (requested by @jewind in #154). Settings → Fences → Layout → Icon alignment → Center splits the room left in each row of icons between both sides. Every fence starts at Left.
• Open folders inside a fence (#132, contributed by @xan2622). With Open folders and folder shortcuts inside this fence in Settings → Fences (off by default), a double-click on a folder or a folder shortcut shows its files in the fence, with an up arrow (or Backspace) back to the fence's own icons.
• Custom themes (suggested by @HaydenBL in #84). A JSON file in the themes folder next to config.json changes the blur, tint, lens, corners, shadow, fonts and colors of Fluent or Liquid Glass without moving or resizing a fence. Settings → General → Custom theme lists the themes and opens the folder, which starts with three examples; THEMES.md describes the format.
• Smaller additions. Icon label color White or Black also colors the fence titles, the tabs and the item count (#141, requested by @HaydenBL); Switch tabs on hover is on in new configurations; a Games quick option under Settings → Sorting rules → Create a fence and its rule in one click gathers Steam, Epic and Xbox game shortcuts (in-app feedback 83); the AI assistants card under Settings → Sorting rules copies a ready prompt for Claude Code or Codex (in-app feedback 87); Ctrl+D deletes to the Recycle Bin (in-app feedback 85); a file shows its own thumbnail whenever Explorer shows one, PDF and PSD files included (in-app feedback 48); Fluent fences have clean round corners, also on Windows 10; a folder tab in a tab strip gets an up arrow inside a subfolder (#126, contributed by @xan2622).

Fixes

• Refresh no longer hides the fences (in-app feedback 95). A double-click on Refresh in the desktop's right-click menu, or one click on the empty desktop right after using a fence, counted as a double-click on the empty desktop and hid every fence. A double-click on the empty desktop still hides and shows them.
• Fences keep their size between monitors with different scales (in-app feedback 96). A fence PecoFence moved to a screen with another scale, after the screens changed or with pecofence-cli fence move, came out a quarter larger or a fifth smaller, so fences overlapped when a laptop screen came back on. A fence you drag to the other screen still takes that screen's scale.
• Store edition: a new desktop picture shows in the fences at once (in-app feedback 95); it used to take up to 5 seconds.
• Deleting no longer freezes PecoFence when the Recycle Bin holds many items (in-app feedback 47, also in #120). With 30,000 items in the bin, each delete stopped the fences for about 5 seconds; PecoFence now asks for the bin's state in the background.
• Empty Recycle Bin in the menu of the Recycle Bin in a fence works when the files were deleted in another program (in-app feedback 48).
• Liquid Glass no longer closes PecoFence on some AMD Radeon graphics (in-app feedback 69, probably also 22) while icons are dragged into a fence or a fence is resized, rolled up or expanded. After screens are connected or disconnected, PecoFence waits until they have settled before it redraws (in-app feedback 59).
• PecoFence starts again by itself after a crash (in-app feedback 59), with the same settings; it does not after a crash within a minute of the start, or when it was ended from Task Manager.
• Selection (in-app feedback 66, #137 reported by @lssg1996s-png, #135 contributed by @dxiiren): a click on the desktop or in another fence takes the selection off the icons of the other fences.
• After Win+D with Keep fences visible, Settings and an icon's Properties open on top of the fences (#133, reported by @ciropi93).
• Windows 10 with a program running as administrator: fences no longer stay above all other windows (in-app feedback 91).
• Live wallpapers (in-app feedback 45, 55, 62, 64 and 76; #134, reported by @yishidezhangjie666-sys): a new wallpaper shows in the fences within a few seconds, cloned screens in Wallpaper Engine show the live wallpaper too, and Wallpaper Engine's scene wallpapers, which Windows cannot copy, give the glass a plain neutral color until a picture works again.
• An icon dragged out of a fence onto the empty desktop stays in the Desktop fence, and the rules no longer send it straight back (in-app feedback 49).
• Delete, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Explorer's commands work on a selection that mixes your desktop icons with the Public Desktop's (in-app feedback 21).
• A folder Foo next to Foo.lnk, or a file README next to README.bat, opens itself (in-app feedback 51); a file dragged from the Recycle Bin window into a fence gets its name back (in-app feedback 50).
• Push the fences below down when one expands also pushes locked fences, without changing their saved place (in-app feedback 52).
• Save snapshot works when 20 snapshots exist and some were saved automatically, and a restore gives every fence the roll state and height of the snapshot (in-app feedback 76).
• While you drag a file out of a fence during Peek, the dimming fades, so the window you drag it to shows as it is (in-app feedback 2).
• A rule value typed in quotes works, so names with spaces match (in-app feedback 89).
• Store edition installed on another drive: when Windows will not let PecoFence read its saved settings (error 409), a notice says so and suggests moving PecoFence to C: or using the portable edition (in-app feedback 56).
• After a crash inside ExplorerPatcher, the notice at the next start names it and says how to stop it (in-app feedback 81).
• Feedback reports carry up to 50 KB of log, and the log records more of what happened (display changes, what hid the fences, wallpaper signals, why PecoFence quit, a 5 second hang with the command that was running), still without file, folder or fence names (in-app feedback 92, 95 and 96).
• pecofence-cli fence move, resize and fit put the fence where their reply says: a rect past the screen edge is cut to the screen, so a fence no longer ends up above the screen or behind the taskbar.
• pecofence-cli status says what the fences make of each monitor's live wallpaper, snapshot restore --dry-run lists what a restore would change (in-app feedback 76), and the bundled SKILL.md loads in GitHub Copilot CLI (#153, contributed by @uvw).

Downloads

• pecofence-v0.2.4-x64-setup.exe: installer, per user, no administrator rights needed.
• pecofence-v0.2.4-x64-portable.zip: portable; extract and run pecofence.exe.
• A .sha256 checksum for each.

Copies installed with the setup can update from Settings → About → Check for updates.

Full changelog: v0.2.3...v0.2.4