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."
Desktop icons move from main screen to extended screen monitor
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.
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105 answers
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Anonymous
2017-11-23T06:34:57+00:00 -
Anonymous
2017-11-23T00:12:00+00:00 fully agree !!!!!!!
instead of "disable AV" or use "restore point" "re-install graphic drivers" .. .what a horrible cut and paste answer.
have trying to solve this issue for quite some time and agree .. it is a bug or a setting very very hidden.
W10
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Anonymous
2017-11-13T14:25:22+00:00 Hi murat tokgozlu
I tried every scenario possible including all of yours but every time I reboot or shut down and restart, the same thing happens. Funky things going on with this one monitor now so going to call HP and see if I can sort the monitor issues out first. Stranger things have happened so will repost here once I have straightened out this current issue first. Maybe something up with the monitor board taking control and not letting go.
Thanks to everyone trying to help.
Regards, PolarKev
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Anonymous
2017-11-13T04:00:18+00:00 Here is how I found the solution, I hope this will help all of you frustrated with this problem and being able to find an answer here after reading all the postings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBFFHmGFuBI
Good luck out there.
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Anonymous
2017-09-27T05:22:13+00:00 This is a bug with Win. 10. One simple solution is 1-)Make sure your primary display is correctly assigned. 2-) If not reassign them through the display settings 3-)Manually group and block move all your icons to your primary display (display no. 1) 4-) Sort your icons (by name or other). 5-)Restart Windows 6-) Arrange your icons the way you prefer. The next time you start they will stay the way they are. Hope this helps.