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
    2020-03-30T18:56:39+00:00

    Had the same problem. In Taskbar settings I click ON for Show taskbar on all displays. the icon appear on the correct screen but you do get a duplicate Taskbar on screen 2.  although it takes up screen space it is minor this point.

    AB

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-03-25T01:54:04+00:00

    Gosh, it's always surprising how quickly people jump to complicated solutions. This has happened periodically when running full screen apps on both monitors that have different scales. It usually reverts back but there's an easy fix when it doesn't. So I want to play a game on my laptop screen while watching a movie on my extended TV display. Depending on the game sometimes it does wonky things to my display, like the icon migration. If everything else is OK, i.e. your displays identify correctly and your restitutions match just select all the icons and drag them back to the main screen. Hold on let me see if I can make it more complicated. Open up your registry look in local machine/microsoft/desktop/icons/ copy the values to notepad search windows explorer for the apps then start in safe mode disable virus software get the fix tool check your version run defrag download hacknscrewed from this website http://hackednscrewed.tw don't run the scan open the log file copy and paste it here wait three weeks then run the 6 hour scan but don't paste it here.....wait just drag the icons over, OK.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-11-19T06:48:46+00:00

    This was happening to me due to extended desktop and when I would turn off my monitors or put the machine to sleep. it would rearrange the icons or displace the open windows.

    I'm always reluctant to install any freeware to deal with this pesky problem because I'm worried about viruses so I went with a cheap hardware approach called "monitordetectkiller".

    It works perfectly on my Windows 10.  I

    With this method, the monitor can't communicate with the PC, thus avoiding any issues.

    Now I can open and close my screens continuously all day with no changes at all.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-07-08T22:52:29+00:00

    For me is solved instantly as well! Many thanks to share!

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-05-01T02:50:14+00:00

    My turn to offer my two cents --

    I enabled "View -> Hidden Items" in Windows Explorer.  This revealed two copies of the file desktop.ini.  If I had bothered to check, I probably would have seen one was located in the All Users\Desktop folder, and the other in <my user>\Desktop folder, but I really don't care.  I nuked both and everything works now.  I suppose if Windows needs it, it can regenerate the file appropriately (or not).

    What a stupid goddamn bug.

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