Windows 7 desktop icons keep rearranging themselves

Anonymous
2009-10-07T02:55:22+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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.

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Anonymous
2009-10-07T17:38:17+00:00

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.

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Anonymous
2009-10-07T04:51:35+00:00

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...

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-11-03T22:56:10+00:00

    I have 2 but one is for my username and one is the public file.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-07-05T02:24:12+00:00

    OK.  SecurityGuy 14  Solution as Implement by me and a couple of others REALLY works in Windows 7 Professional

    In regedit go to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

    Then create Key "Explorer"

    Add new DWORD value "NoSaveSettings" and set to 0

    To be safe, I exported HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ and called it noSaveSettingsRestore.reg

    Now Reboot and the problem was solved for us.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-06-29T14:32:04+00:00

    Here's a solution from another thread to lock the icons.  I'm having the same problem -icons moving and changing size - but people are saying this works.

    This is the url to the "HOW CAN I LOCK DESKTOP ICONS?" in the Related Topic box to the right.

    http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/xpdesktop/thread/75c03648-1478-4c7b-a8f2-392616b30728

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