I agree. This is a major oversight by the developers. Rolled up Fences are worthless if they open behind an app. Sliding open apps around or minimizing them only to be able to access something in a Fence negates the worth of the Fence. Most other utilities I have always open on top. SnagIt is one, for example. It is "rolled up" and docked to the right side of the screen. If I want to take a partial screen shot I just hover over it and it opens on top of anything else. Very convenient. Fences should do the same.

Fences works at Desktop level, not on top of the desktop.  It works at the functional level of Desktop Icons which are standardized at their 'level' by the OS itself.

Having fences unroll over the top of an open window would be like having the Desktop wallpaper show 'over the top of' an open window.

I'd be very surprised if an 'on top' function could ever be realized, certainly not without drastic alteration to the Windows OS itself...

Object Dock works at the same 'level' as any normal 'Window'.  It is all about what is known as 'z-order', or the layers on which various objects/features/functions of the Windows OS can function.

The lowest visible layer of the OS GUI is the desktop wallpaper.

Next on top comes the desktop Icons.

AFTER those comes the program Windows.

Next one would be the taskbar/start menu ....with the capacity to be placed above open Windows, etc.

For a third party program to relocate or change this order, the actual Microsoft Windows format for the icons would need to be stripped out and rewritten at a new layer, something I expect cannot be done whilst still maintaining the Windows Shell [Explorer.exe]....

Hello,

As mentioned before,
I have forwarded your report and request 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.

Just to chime in, Fences is somewhat useless to me if I cannot keep a fence window on top after I roll over it. Otherwise the contents of the fence window remains hidden under some other window.

Hello there,

Have you tried Fences 4 yet? It have a new feature, where you can bring up the fences to front with a hotkey. Please refer screenshot below.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

THIS REQUEST CAN SAFELY BE IGNORED! MY MISTAKE: (1) works as described, (2) I think this has ben implemented anyway.

Oops - not quite perfect.
When the Fence unrolls it still comes up behind the currently displayed windows so it is of limited value.

I used FancyZones to define a narrow zone at the top of the screen which can display a single row of icons on a Fence.
But that is a pretty terrible solution.

Two ways to solve this are:

1. Change Fences. Returning to the desktop in order to use Fences is problematic because it will involve losing the current window layout:
Once you Win+D you see the desktop and you can press Win+D again to get back your layout. But as soon as you do anything on the destop Win+D your layout back is lost.

2. Create a new function to show the desktop with the same use case as the Windows10 start menu. I.e. the windows layout is preserved

Many thanks

Oh so it does

Having set the hot key I'd subconsciously thought 'problem fixed' so I was just rolling the mouse over a rolled up fence. Of course that still unrolls behind the app windows.
The program is doing what we were told - it unrolls in front provided you press Win+Space.

Thanks