This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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...
This is definitely not answered, in fact most answers I get from the "Certified" guys are not a solution.
This same thing happens to me whenever I dock/undock my laptop or plug into a different monitor, which happens twice a day. For whatever reason, Windows uses the lowest resolution, rather than the highest like it should, and all the shortcuts get rearranged (no matter what) and if they expand beyond the current resolution they get bunched up to the left side of the screen. Even if I manually set them to be within the bounds of the lowest resolution, they still get reshuffled and expanded when switching to the higher resolution. I also don't have Auto-arrange selected and there is no Sort set. No matter what I do, Windows decides how they're arranged when changing resolutions, and there's no rhyme or reason to it (except Microsoft's own, which is a mystery to me now). I could make screenshots for you if you wanted.
I've been told to update my drivers, install them manually, scan for viruses, shoot flying saucers with laser pens, blah blah blah, they're all red herrings because those aren't the problem. Windows is just coded stupidly here, as one other poster explained has been happening since 3.1. I suppose a Mac is smarter in this regard (though its always been stupid with multiple monitors and maximizing windows), and there just seems to be some need for a basic level of intelligence with icons and resolutions especially when I have no choice as to it changing when I dock/undock or switch monitors, and it should just intelligently use the maximum usable resolution period or at least give me options to set them manually in profiles. This seems like something that should have been around since Windows 95 or at least when LCD monitors got popular (and when when 2nd monitors got popular).
As a frustrated laptop user who uses multiple configurations, it is the single most difficult thing I do with the laptop, and causes me too much time and aggravation so I've just removed most icons from my desktop. It now includes four which I don't have in the Start menu or taskbar or quicklaunch, so I'm not sure what the point of the desktop is at this point except to have a pretty background thanks to Microsoft.
Well, Dude,
I too had this problem. But, don't think this problem is permanent. You definitely have registry issues in your laptop. I recommend you to try the free software 'Rogue Killer'. Its amazing. I was searching all over the net for 6 months, but to no avail. This was the cure to what seemed to be an eternal problem! Try this and reply, if it worked. Just scan and fix the errors. Cool.
May all your problems be sorted out!
This is definitely not answered, in fact most answers I get from the "Certified" guys are not a solution.
This same thing happens to me whenever I ................................
As a frustrated laptop user who uses multiple configurations, it is the single most difficult thing I do with the laptop, and causes me too much time and aggravation so I've just removed most icons from my desktop. It now includes four which I don't have in the Start menu or taskbar or quicklaunch, so I'm not sure what the point of the desktop is at this point except to have a pretty background thanks to Microsoft.
Microsoft do it to annoy their once formerly loyal customers?
Since moving one i7 3D laptop to LinuxMint 17 (x64), the Icons on the desktop have never moved a millimeter; and the whole laptop (built for Windows 7) works far better, and far more reliable on than than it does/did with Windows 8.1 on it. But then again, LinuxMint 17 (with a five year technical update path) is completely free: and so is all the amazing software you can get for it thats free also.
