The best free alternative to Fences is Portals: Desktop Organization. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to Fences and many of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to Fences are Tokri, Nimi Places, iTop Easy Desktop and Sideslide.
Create containers (aka Portals) on your desktop which show the contents of a specified folder. Divide your desktop into folders then use Portals to display the contents of the folders in an organized fashion - you can even hide the folders away somewhere else.
Free and beautiful. A must have.
Desktop basket utility for collecting text, files, images, and URLs with drag and drop. Supports moving or copying between apps via keyboard shortcuts. Works on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Flatpak. Minimalist, open-source, local temporary file management solution.
Organizes desktop into customizable containers showing folder contents as icons/thumbnails on a scrollable surface. Has lots of management features: e.g. labelling; sort by category; time & location based settings. Thumbnails are displayed for supported Open Documents, PSD images & PDFs.
Free, and it works almost the same. Just has a little more setup than Fences does.
This performs ONE of Fences' secondary functions: displaying the contents of directories OTHER THAN the Desktop as virtual containers on the Desktop. IT IS NOT for organizing Desktop icons/files or setting up automatic rules for categorization of new Desktop icons/files.
Nimi Places is not an exact replica of Fences, but(!) it will give you the look and feel. Instead of everything being on your desktop, it links it a folder. I am just going to change my behavior a tad and just know that my files, when placed in the fence, are not stored on the actual desktop. I still have easy access to move the files between the desktop to fence and vice versa, which is most important to me.
Automates desktop organization for Windows by grouping files, apps, and folders into customizable boxes, supporting appearance adjustments, instant hotkey access, multi-page desktops, double-click hiding, Folder Portal, and fast search functionality.
It automatically manages new icons added to the desktop by installers repetitively every time that software gets updated by remembering which container they are assigned to and thus avoiding having to manage duplicates manually.
CoodeDesker, StarDock Fences and iTop Easy Desktop are the only softwares for desktop (professional-looking specifically) organization via containers that are worth trying. iTop Easy Desktop might be the worst of those 3, but it's the one that has a free option.
Best free alternative to Fences.
SideSlide is an advanced, portable, unobtrusive, dockable, skinnable, instantly accessible, highly configurable Desktop Extension on Steroids! Clean desktop clutter and make your computer friendlier and faster than ever before.
Very full featured program with a steep learning curve, but it's worth it.
Because it's not similar and easy to use like Fences that is a very intuitive application
It's a very comprehensive program with lots of features that can change the way you work with Windows.
Organizes desktop icons into virtual fences with customizable design options, enhanced visual effects, and right-click interactions. Works on Windows, portable via USB, lightweight, supports multiple monitors, runs offline, and requires no registration for core features.
Folderview Screenlet is a Linux alternative to Fences (which is for Windows).
AI-powered Mac file organizer with smart renaming. Automatically sorts files by content and suggests intelligent filenames. Supports 50+ languages. 100% private, offline, no subscriptions.
Restore your desktop when the icons get “rearranged”.
Melba23 and I found we were working on very similar ideas to restore the Desktop icons to their normal place if they became “rearranged”. Vista seems to like this doing on occasion just for fun – but we all know some applicat.
It only keeps the icons arranged, don't let you make fences which I think is the best feature of it.
Say goodbye to desktop chaos – Aicono uses cutting-edge AI to automatically group and arrange your icons!
I like Aicono because it runs locally, is completely free, and uses the latest AI to automatically group and arrange icons. It’s highly customizable, offers a manual fallback, lets you fine-tune the layout with a real-time WYSIWYG interface, and integrates smoothly with local Llama, Ollama, and any OpenAI-compatible local server.
XLaunchpad gives you instant access to all your shortcuts. Arrange apps in XLaunchpad any way you like by dragging icons to different locations or by grouping apps in folders. Simply drag one icon over another to create a folder.
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It looks like windows native.