Right-click desktop, click View, and uncheck Auto arrange icons.
Ramesh Srinivasan | The Winhelponline Blog
Microsoft MVP, Windows Desktop Experience
Can't move shortcut icons on my desktop to different locations on the desktop
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Anonymous
I cannot move my desktop shortcut icons around on my desktop. Think it has something to do with the auto-allign feature - how do I fix this ?
Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility
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Anonymous
2015-08-04T09:56:27+00:00 I was having exactly the same problem; on the desktop I ended up hitting escape a few times and I was able to move my icons again.
As a note this was occurring everywhere in Explorer as I couldn't move icons from one folder to another either.
Sometimes the simplest things resolve problems, had been bugging me for ages. Never thought simply hitting Escape a few times would resolve a problem. Thanks.
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Anonymous
2015-08-03T01:56:49+00:00 Yup. Nothing worked but stopping and restarting explorer.exe. This only started for me after upgrading to Windows 10.
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Anonymous
2015-08-01T05:00:23+00:00 It is an error involving Windows Explorer or explorer.exe. Find it in the task manager and restart it. Taking these steps should correct it.
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Anonymous
2015-07-24T20:53:03+00:00 I have the same issue -- suddenly no longer can move anything to folders on my desktop with Windows 8.1 Driving me crazy!! Did everything suggested here but still unable to move them??