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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...
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.
Try Rogue Killer. Google for it. You will get the result you needed.
Try it!
I agree, this is not answered! I've tried everything here, and on every other post on this matter and STILL they do what they want! No matter what I have them set to do, it will move them where they want them, sometimes 3 or more times in a day I have to move things around! Which is annoying, I have my work sorted out into sections and in place that I can just bounce around to where things are supposed to be on the desktop and then suddenly it is not there anymore and I have to go searching for it all over until I find it. Refreshing once in place doesn't stop it, neither does turning off the align by grid, order, date modified NOTHING will fix it
