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Every few days, all the icons on my Win7 desktop rearrange themselves. Usually they move to the left edge of the screen. I laboriously move all the icons back to where I like them, and 3-10 days later, they all shift left again. I've found no pattern or event that might cause this -- but it's very annoying!
I've got Win7 build 7100 running on a Dell Latitude D830 laptop. Totally standard hardware and very little non-Microsoft software. In short, it's a pretty clean system.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
To supplement Reyas.M.I.'s answer, Under View is the option to select the icon size, Auto arrange icons and Align icons to grid. The Sort by option includes Name, Size, Item type and Date modified. I suggest you check both View and Sort by.
Corrine, Microsoft MVP (Consumer Security). This posting is provided "AS IS" without warranty, and confers no rights.
Check whether "Auto Arrange" checked. To check this, right click on desktop and select "Arrange icons by".
I hope this helps.
Thanks and Regards, Reyas...
However since I can't find the auto-arrange option in Windows 7 I'm wondering if you go to the control panel and personalization/desktop icon settings and uncheck "allow themes to change desktop icons" might be an answer.
Another vote for unchecking "allow themes to change desktop icons" as the best answer to this problem. All the other answers do nothing on my computers, as far as I can see.
Just one caveat, on my version of Windows 7, it is found in Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization, the click on "Change Desktop Icons", you will see "allow themes to change desktop icons" at the bottom left of the popup window.
This is not an ad or a joke, this is free software. I solved my issues by getting the free DesktopOK here http://desktopok.en.softonic.com/ The caveat is you have to remember to save your settings after you make significant changes to the desktop. Especially if you use a multi monitor setup, DesktopOK supports that or at least recovers my 2 monitors where others I have tried fail. Clicking SAVE on this program saves your icon positions at your current resolution in a seperate list entry that provides multiple saved positioning and at the resolution you saved it. In other words, you can save profiles for icon positioning for a number of resolutions and go back to them when you change screen resolutions simply by selecting the saved resolution from the list.
If you use Windows long enough you will learn that no desktop arrangement is safe. If a hotfix or a service pack does not scramble your icons, an update to your graphics card driver will. Best for everyone to install DesktopOK, save your icon positions when you get them the way you like and don't worry about it. Then next time Windows or Software Company XYZ destroys them, you can recover in a couple of clicks.
i'm pretty sure this is due to the screen-resolution changing if you log out and back in again. i don't know why it does so, or how to work around it. i hardly use the desktop for anything, so it's not a big deal for me
