Windows 7 desktop icon's keep moving

Anonymous
2009-10-24T13:28:57+00:00

Hi there, I have re-arranged my desktop and moved the task bar to the left side of the screen. Therefore I have moved my desktop icons and my gadgets over to the right side of the screen and lined them up in order to what they are, (ie: MS Office icons in one row, excel files I use on a regular basis, Adobe program and so-on and so-on). Everytime I re-boot my PC about 2/3rds of the icons keep moving back over to the left side of the screen and arrange from top to bottom.

I have checked and un-checked align icons by grid and it makes no difference.

I didn't have this issue in VISTA but when I installed Windows 7 I have this issue.

Any suggestions here on how I can stop the icons from moving??

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Anonymous
2009-11-08T14:51:55+00:00

Had the same problem. Please go to this link, there are separate programs for 32 & 64 bit Windows (I have 64 bit, that works fine, cannot know about the 32 bit, but....):

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/save-and-restore-desktop-icon-layout-in-windows-vista/

Al;though designed for Vista, it is fine with Windows 7 Ultimate. Might do for XP, haven't needed to use it there.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-02-27T15:55:20+00:00

    I had a similar problem with multiple displays and the icons always reverting to a secondary monitor that was not my primary.  The problem was that one of the monitors was not being detected by Windows correctly and therefore reverting my display profile to a default configuration.  Once I remidied the problem of Windows identifying my monitors the problem went away.  It turns out that one of my monitors was set to a refresh rate of 59Hz instead of 60Hz.  Once I made the change to 60Hz I retained all changes made to display properties and icon positions on a reboot.  I would suggest that you look into the settings for your monitor(s) and verify that they are correct.

    This might be the proper solution, check your monitors frequency, it should be 60Hz if it is TFT/LCD, and not 59Hz.

    Some software/games may temper with this and change it back to wrong value (59Hz) when reverting back to desktop.

    I'm testing this at the moment and I'll post if I find out that it indeed is the problem-maker.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-17T04:20:00+00:00

    Nah... doesn't work. I use hybernate everyday for weeks in a row (until a patch requires reboot) and 2 or 3 times a week they flip all over. I thought it could be caused (probably is) by having more than one display (i have 2 extra monitors) .... Happens all the time. I have to test the hold-****-reboot Right-click on the deskop didn't help...

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-01-05T01:59:08+00:00

    I'm using an NVIDIA graphics card, so I don't think that's the problem. The other thing is that while I'm using the opened document, another copy of the document open with a "~$" sign in front of it. This second document takes the position of the original document, and then after I finish saving the original document, it shifts to a different position on the desktop.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-01-04T22:00:10+00:00

    This problem drove me nuts and I tried every suggestion I found here and in other forums.  The problem was finally permanently solved when I switched from an ATI graphics card to a Nvidia card.  Prior to having the problem, I had used a Nvidia card for a couple of years and never had this problem.  When I switched to the ATI card some time back, the problem started.  In my case, it might have had something to do with the fact that I have two monitors with slightly different resolutions.   If you're running at ATI card, try a Nvidia and see if that doesn't fix it for you.

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