Using Fences Target-Based Rules for Steam Games

Thursday, August 19, 2021 by Island Dog | Discussion: Stardock Blog

One of the most requested features for Fences has been target-based rules, which we added in the latest Fences update. There's a variety of uses for target-based rules, but the one we'll talk about today is using these rules to make Steam desktop shortcuts go directly to a fence of your choosing.

For example, I have a fence called 'Steam Games' on my desktop that I only want Steam shortcuts to be in. I want them to be automatically sorted into that fence when I download a new game from Steam.

Open the Fences configuration and open the 'Sorting & organizing' window. Now, look for the "target-based rules" section.


Clicking the text there will give you some options on how you want to create this rule. For this example, we'll use the 'Link's target contains...' rule.

Now, a new window comes up where we can add the parameters for our new rule. Selecting the drop-down menus will give you several options to choose from. For the Steam links we'll start off with defining them like this: target starts with steam://.


Click 'Add additional criteria' to add another entry.

For this one, we'll select the icon type and set it as a shortcut (link) as that is what a Steam shortcut is. Click OK and we can now set which fence we want these icons to be placed in. Here I chose my Steam Games fence.

You can choose to run the rules right now to organize your desktop, and you can set Fences to always apply these rules.

Now all your Steam shortcuts should be organized into your selected folder!

 

elvee
Reply #1 Friday, August 20, 2021 6:19 PM

 

Cool! Thanks!

kaatza
Reply #2 Saturday, August 28, 2021 10:22 AM

Thanks for how to.

naaskaii
Reply #3 Sunday, August 29, 2021 11:08 AM

This is a wonderful article however, after following it, the new fence moves Microsoft Store apps as well. I do not know why as their target link does not start with steam://.

ScottElsdon
Reply #4 Thursday, September 2, 2021 12:12 AM

I had the same experience,  i deleted the rule and just had the first part,  link starts with steam://  never mind the second part,  works now.

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