How can I lock desktop icons?

I've suggested a different method which worked for me, have you tried it? Run Malwarebytes free antimalware, my problem with moving icons was caused by a virus,

If your talking about the icons moving when you reboot or turn on your computer arrange your icons the way you want then click on an empty part of the desktop and choose refresh. This will lock the icons in place so everytime you reboot or start your computer they will be where you put them. Do the refresh everytime you add a program or anything to the desktop or rearrange your icons. Uncheck auto arrange and align to grid.

Hi there,have you tried this?Right click an empty space on your desktop,highlight desktop icons,place a check  on 'lock icons in place' and uncheck'auto arrange,?

That does absolutely nothing to prevent icons from being rearranged by other items that may overlay on the desktop. For example, I installed Dragon Naturally Speaking, which has a large sidebar on the right side of the screen. Even though that sidebar is set to auto hide, when Dragon first loads, the sidebar will push all icons off the right side of the desktop screen and they will be jumbled up on the left side of the desktop. I have not yet found anything to prevent this. Certainly your suggestion (also suggested by dozens of others on other forums) does not lock the icons in place on the desktop.

With so many people suggesting the same solution to a problem -- a solution that does nothing to address the problem -- it seems to me that people are spouting something they think should work, but they haven't really tried it. Please don't propose a solution until you try it to see if it works.

Primarily, what I am trying to achieve is to set up my Desktop PC to allow output to a VGA/Video Converter - to TV  - but each time I Log off and back on (after connecting the VGA converter)...all the Icons have been shuffled around.

I'm hoping this would Fix that ??

You have to use a third-party utility that will first save your icons layout then allow to restore any of your saved layout on demand. See one of my earlier replies in this thread where I mentioned some of these utilities.

In your case, the icons layout has been rearranged due to  hardware resolution change for your graphic card. And there can't be any  registry tip to prevent that. The only thing that will work is to setup your display resolution to its former (original) value then to apply a saved layout using one given utility.

Cheers from France

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to all readers of this thread!