How can I lock desktop icons?

This would be great and it works on my Netbook with Windows XP - unfortunately the option is NOT available on W7 Home Edition

Hi securityguy14,

This is great, thanks - (because the lock-icon option is NOT available on Windows 7 Home Edition although it IS on XP with a right click on empty space on Desktop).

One question I do have, once your Reg Fix kicks in - will I be able to manually move any Desktop Icons ? Obviously, as programs and files build, there's sometimes a need to shuffle the Desktop icons around a bit manually.

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 ??

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!

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.