Can't move shortcut icons on my desktop to different locations on the desktop

Anonymous
2010-08-17T01:53:34+00:00

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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Ramesh 181.2K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2010-08-17T04:46:39+00:00

Right-click desktop, click View, and uncheck Auto arrange icons.

Ramesh Srinivasan | The Winhelponline Blog

Microsoft MVP, Windows Desktop Experience

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-05T00:57:41+00:00

    I was having this issue as well... mashed the ESC key for all i was worth but didn't fix anything (no it's not stuck, tried that too). Then, for no reason, the desktop did a double refresh and everything worked again. NOTE: I have desktop icon toy (AND I CAN'T UNINSTALL IT IT'S DRIVING ME MAD) but I don't think that was the problem if you guys had the exact same one.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-20T14:13:32+00:00

    This worked for me! Thanks!

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-19T04:22:41+00:00

    ESC worked for me too - no idea what caused the icons to lock....  did the kill explorer and restart, no avail - read MikeBald's post and hit ESC a couple times and was good to go again, Thanks MikeBald!

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-06T04:39:10+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.

    Ha..ha..ha.. Seriously I was going anxious as I'd never experienced this behaviour of my system before.  Checked all over the place to make the changes and process for correcting it.  Eventually, read your post and  my mind thought "This can't work anywayzz" 

    Ha..hahaha..I was wrong, Tried it and it worked great!  Unbelieveable!  

    hitting ESCAPE key 3 times made it possible...don't know wahat happened but MIKE your trick really works...:)

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