After buying winstep extreme I deleted stardock fences to start with a clean desktop. Extreme is now installed and configured. However, I would like to place a few stardock fences on my desktop. Will I run into any conflicts using two separate desktop programs?

No conflicts that I am aware of. Just don't tell the Winstep application to 'Hide desktop icons', no idea how that would affect Fences.

when i activate fences any program I open in full screen ends up covering the entire screen, hiding the drawers that I pinned to the lefty side of the screen.

You can set the Drawers to 'Always on top' or you can set them to reserve screen space (Drawer Properties -> Position -> Prevent maximized windows from overlapping the drawer).

Also, please keep in mind that maximized windows are NOT the same thing as full screen windows/applications (such as games). The latter will always cover the whole screen and disable (by design) screen edge activations of docks, drawers, etc

Can't help wondering why so often we come across people confusing Maximised Window and Full Screen. The terms are perfectly self-explanatory. For the benefit of those out there who can't tell the meaning and the difference, the first is a window that is maximised, with all 'window decorations' in place, while the second is no longer a window but occupies the full screen, sans (most) of the 'window decorations'.

I've set all the items to prevent maximized windows from overlapping. I also have to computers side by side on my desktop. They are both dell i-7's running win 10 pro. One has nexus extreme, the other has nexus ultimate. They both have fences running on them.

The one with nexus ultimate is used with the xbox remote app to access an xbox in another room. The "do not overlap" feature works perfectly while running any program on it, including the xbox remote app. The three drawers pinned to the left side of the screen are always visible.

The computer with nexus extreme is the problem. It starts out working fine, but suddenly will no longer respect the "Prevent maximized windows from overlapping the drawer" Sometimes a reboot fixes the problem, and sometimes it does not. If it is working properly when I go to bed at night it will always be messed up in the morning (I run backup programs at night on that computer so they may be causing the nightly problem.)

During the day, when the prevent maximize feature stops working the date and time in the nexus taskbar also stops working - it will come back by opening and closing the taskbar, but that doesn't bring back the prevent maximized window from overlapping feature.

Sometimes, but not always, doing a restore of the nextstart and the ultimate will bring it back, but that is also inconsistent.

The only real feature I use in extreme is the configurable taskbar - if there were a way to put grid stacks on the Windows taskbar I'd be fine with just ultimate.

This weekend I might get a chance to install Extreme on the second computer to see if it then develops the same problem or if it does not then I'll know that something on the first computer is the culprit. I'll update you when I try it.

You mean Winstep Xtreme and Nexus Ultimate - better get the names right or we end up confusing ourselves lol

Anyway, I don't run Fences so I don't know if it does anything to Windows Explorer under-the-hood (the Winstep applications do not) that might interfere with 3rd party applications such as Winstep, but I don't think so.

The 'prevent maximized windows from overlapping...' setting relies on a Windows 'reserve screen space for toolbars' mechanism (the Windows taskbar is a toolbar) that depends on Windows Explorer to work properly.

What I did notice on my Windows 11 22H2 is that Microsoft seems to be tinkering with features that had been previously working fine for decades and end up breaking them for other applications. The 'reserve screen space' feature seems to be an example of such.

What I did was to add a new 'Reset Reserved Screen Space' internal command for the next release that, as the name says, resets all the drawers, docks, etc, reserving screen space. Seems to fix issues when this Windows mechanism suddenly stops working properly.

Argh! Why on Earth can't a lot of people get the names of programmes that they use right! If they cannot even get that right one has to suspect they know next to bugger all about the actual programmes.

Simple rules for new applications :
Learn their name/s properly
Get to know new apps well by exploring all their configuration options
Practice, practice, practice before using them in earnest

Simple.

Wow...that's your helpful response? I referred to ultimate vs extreme - the developer knows what I was referring to and responded with useful information. You responded with adolescent ignorance.

1) You really do not want to start an abusive argument with forum staff.
2) The response was an observation to the developer as is obvious from the quoted context. You incorrectly referred to 'Nexus Extreme' [sic!] instead of Winstep Xtreme - how ignorant is that?

.....

:Moderator's note - extremely abusive and threatening arguing with staff redacted; abuse and arguing with staff is not tolerated on any board, and even less so are threats against the programme! One should never deal with the likes of terrorists, blackmailers, and the like, and we certainly will not do so here! User banned - nexter:

How about both of you calming down, please? It's quite common for users to mix the names of Nexus Ultimate and Winstep Xtreme, although it is also true that this can lead to some confusion.

No biggie either way.

Jorge, please see my comments in his (redacted) post above. I wasn't getting anywhere near heated so don't need cooling down. This character was threatening to damage Winstep with bad reviews - you want to give in to a blackmailer like that?

Well, and that is exactly what he did on the BDJ site. I know it's him despite the different email address and username here and there.

I can understand having a quid pro quo with a moderator, but using that as an excuse to trash the application itself and claiming he got no help here (when I was here trying to help him AND it could well be something else interfering with Winstep Xtreme since he only had issues on one of his PCs) doesn't reflect well on him either.

Hmm, kind of figures. Attention seeking narcissist, due to unresolved Oedipal. BDJ - that Equity - something or other site?

Well, even a non-abusive quid pro quo with a mod or admin is very rarely tolerated on most boards that I've ever encountered or was/am part of. That kind of threatening that he engaged in is certainly not acceptable anywhere. Some boards I knew would try and trace and contact the offender's ISP and report him. The nerve, getting a - I thought - very helpful response from yourself, and then threatening the kind of crap he did! Now that really could make anybody's blood boil!

I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back here with different email/IP/user name and starts more nonsense. (Seen that sort of thing a few times before.)