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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...
It happens to my desktop when I play very old games (16-bit color, 1024x768 resolution) on my system which is 32-bit color and 1920x1080 resolution. After I exit the "very old games" I find that my desktop rearranges certain icons and icons in very specific places on my desktop. It's really strange as some things with Windows are.
Here's how I got it to stop. I unchecked "Align icons to grid". And that was it. My icons do not move from where I drop them. It is kind of a drag because if I want to align my icons in a perfect grid it takes time. But you know what? Few things in life are perfect and so I live with my icons in an imperfect grid because I really don't care that much. But I do care if they are in the specific order in which I intended them to be and by unchecking the "Align icons to grid" they don't move around anymore.
One last thing not really related to icons but sort of kind of is. Did you know that you can re-size your desktop icons so they are different sizes than the choice of small, medium or large icons Windows gives you? It's true. Take your mouse and place it on an icon. Left-click once so the icon is "highlighted". With your mouse still on the highlighted icon, hold the CTRL key and roll the mouse wheel up and down. I made my icons 1 or 2 sizes smaller than the small size so I can fit more icons on my desktop. I had to do this because I have more games installed on my PC than the desktop filled with regular "small" icons can hold. Wheeeeeee!!!!!
Just a reminder, I've posted before. I have the same issue on one windows 7 computer only. I believe the icons change location because this particular monitor is a 27" Asus. It also works through an audio receiver, my speakers are connected to the audio receiver as well.
I always shut my computer down at night, also I shut off the monitor.
I have to remember to turn on both the monitor and receiver on before I boot up the computer. Icons remain the way I left them, all is well if I do that. Booting up the computer first, then turning on the receiver and monitor, the desktop icons get rearranged.
On booting up the OSr looks for all the hardware attached, in my case if the receiver is not turned on, the computer does not see the monitor or it's size, so I believe the OS rearranges the the icons to some default pattern. I have tested this several times the rearranged pattern is the same.
I have a second computer and third computer all windows 7, within sight of this one, both have a standard Samsung 22" monitors, each monitor is plugged into the tower's motherboard and or video card. I have tested both by turning the monitor off and re booting, no change to icon positioning. On these monitors the icons do not under any circumstances rearrange themselves. I believe the difficulty lies in the booting up sequence, the OS must see the monitor early in the boot up.
Desktop Icons Rearrange Themselves is still an issue in 2015. Why can Microsoft implement a "LOCK" feature like there is for the taskbar?
