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??

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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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
    2011-01-05T21:23:10+00:00

    Worked for me - err so far.  Trial is 24 hours old!  We know not to get too excited by finding a workaround for Microsoft's software bugs.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-01-30T22:17:07+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.

    Just tried this with Win7 Home edition 32 bit and although the menus appear when you rightclick on 'My Computer' selecting these options has no effect whatsoever ... might be something i am doing wrong but i wasn't keen on downloading registry altering files off the internet anyhow so i abandoned it.

    Instead I resolved the problem with shifting icons just by sheer persistance:

    start your computer as normal, move your icons into place but don't open or start any programs then restart your computer .. you may have to do this twice or 3 times

    if it's still playing up then try typing (windowskey left) + r. In the box type msconfig, this should bring up 'System Configuration' then click on the 'Startup' tab

    here you will find a list of all of the programs and applications that start as soon as windows is loaded and you are logged on.

    Uncheck some of the boxes (some need to stay checked like drivers and antivirus programs), most of the others can be safely left unchecked without adversely affecting the way Windows works and might even make it start up a bit faster.

    I am not entirely sure which program i unchecked as i ended up unchecking about 25-30 boxes and my icons will now stay put!

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-03-16T19:00:00+00:00

    Thanx HGN-1 :-)

    I tried all the other solutions... but right clicking and selecting Refresh was the one that worked for me!

    Thanx!

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-05-13T17:05:48+00:00

    I'm using Microsoft's Security Essentials on 64 bit Windows 7 and my icons still shuffle with each re-boot, so I say coincidence.

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