Desktop icons move from main screen to extended screen monitor

Anonymous
2013-10-10T13:38:33+00:00

I have been using this setup with my laptop for 18 months so I am familiar with extended screen usage.  Two days ago a problem started.  I have a laptop with 17" screen set to the Main Display plus a 22" not checked to be the Main Display.  Screen Resolution > Multiple Displays = Extend these displays.  Desktop right click > View > Auto Arrange is Not checked.  Sort By options are unchecked.  Personalization > Allow themes to change desktop icons is Not checked.

I have all my desktop icons arranged on the laptop screen which is set to be Main Display.

New Problem: 

When I plug the extended monitor cable into the laptop or when I fresh bootup or if I had changed the Appearance settings from extended to duplicate or to the external 22" to be off and then turn it back to being extended, any of those things, to basically use the 2nd monitor as extended will cause all the desktop icons to move to the extended 22" screen space.  They are supposed to stay anchored to the laptop Main screen since that is how it is allocated.  This worked fine until two days ago and I was not playing with any settings before it happened.

If I unplug the external monitor or set it to be unused or as a duplicate image then the icons return to the main laptop monitor.

I use a freeware IconRestorer to save and restore the last saved desktop layout.  Since this problem started it restores to the extended monitor not back to the laptop main screen like it had previously.  I have killed IconRestorer from the background to see if it was causing the problem and it had no affect.

With the icons showing on the extended 22" monitor and I unplug the video cable for it the icons move to the laptop screen however they are rearranged.  Each time I try that the icons form a different layout and order on the laptop screen. 

I can then run IconRestorer with the 22" still unplugged from the laptop and all the icons will be restored properly.  So I conclude IconRestorer is working fine.  The problem seems to be that Win 7 thinks the Laptop screen is not the main screen even though it is checked as to be the main screen.

Once only while repeating these various steps, after the icons are restored with the 2nd monitor unplugged, then plug it back in all looks fine but if I do the IconRestorer restore all the icons again get placed to the extended 22" screen.  Usually plugging the extended monitor back in causes the icons to jump to that monitor.

Note that when the laptop is checked to be the Main screen the taskbar is located on the laptop monitor so it only partially thinks the extended screen should be the main screen.  If I set the extended 22" as the Main screen then the task bar jumps to the extended screen and all the desktop icons come back to the laptop screen.

It never worked like that before.  I also am running win 7 on desktop with 4 monitors and all icons being on main screen at far left and that still works fine including the use of IconRestorer.

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-01-25T13:18:56+00:00

    I have found a solution, which I fear may only be applicable to my specific case. I tried to cut all symbols from the desktop to a folder and move that folder away from the desktop, but since this is my work PC I needed admin rights for some shortcuts. I clicked on "skip" but in the new folder, there were still a lot of symbols pasted. Apparently, when I was in my home office and had to scale the symbols and text to 175% there was not enough space for ALL of the symbols, so they overlay each other. When reverting back to my 2 Monitor setup at work these overlapping symbols seeming looked normal again, but were obviously not. So after cutting and pasting all the symbols into a separate folder everything worked again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-11-28T15:50:09+00:00

    I have found an app that remembers where you want your desktop icons and will easily restore them after Windows 10 moves some or all of them. It's calledIcon Sheperd, and I have successfully used it many times for about a month now. Here is a quote from https://www.winability.com/icon-shepherd/: "Icon Shepherd™ is a free software utility that we've designed to do just one task, but do it well: keep track of the icons on your Windows desktop, and restore their positions when Windows messes them up."

    This worked for me.

    Many, many thanks for a simple answer to what should not have been a complex problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-11-18T19:45:44+00:00

    IMHO, there's no money in it for them, while they make a pile of money with new versions of Windows if they make older PC's ineligible to run the new version. So they crank out change for the sake of change, changes that make Windows harder to use for many, and continue to not fix bugs that are not well known major security issues.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-11-18T18:50:26+00:00

    Why won't anyone from Microsoft address this freaking issue? It has to have been over 7 years since I started this post/topic and there's still NO SOLUTION?

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-11-18T18:39:49+00:00

    That only works if my main screen is at the Recommended scale percentage, and even then, it only works at a very specific size; one scroll too far in either direction moves it back to the secondary screen.

    The issue was only fixed for me by changing the scale setting back to the recommended percentage on the "Main Display" screen.

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