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!

 


Comments
on Aug 20, 2021

 

Cool! Thanks!

on Aug 28, 2021

Thanks for how to.

on Aug 29, 2021

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://.

on Sep 02, 2021

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.