Windows 11 Desktop icons rearrange and re-sort themselves

Anonymous
2023-07-21T01:09:08+00:00

Lately, my Windows desktop icons have periodically and at random rearranged and re-sorted themselves.

It looks like at arbitrary times, This PC and the Recycle Bin, which are traditionally at the top left hand corner of the desktop now shift downwards. The icons re-sort themselves into alphabetical name order. It usually happens after a boot or reboot.

I also have icons spread out randomly over a two-screen desktop. At an arbitrary moment, again associated with a reboot, all icons suddenly snap to the left hand side of the left-hand screen.

There are many posts on the web about the "Autoarrange Icons" and "Align Icons" settings. Changing those settings do not resolve this problem.

This may have something with the ""Sort By" setting. If that is it, the setting does not stay that way for long.

I don't know if this is a new bug that has appeared in a recent build. I use Windows 11 Home, and the current Version is 22H2, and the Build is 22621.1992.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Settings

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.

0 comments

62 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2025-06-07T22:13:59+00:00

    In 2025 its amazing how simple software issues shouldn't even be around. Thank you. I have applied your fix. Lets see...

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-18T14:31:32+00:00

    I finally found and solved the problem with the rearranging icons. I got a Blink Outdoor 4 camera set for Christmas and the way to set it up required thru a cell phone app, which I did, and it worked fine but I wanted the systems also be setup on my computer. One way was to download the Bluestacks - App Player for Windows and setup the system via Google Play app, which I did, and it worked.

    When I restarted my computer the next day, the rearranging problem started to show up. The way I solved the problem, was to remove two of the three files created by Bluestacks leaving only the Bluestacks App Player and that solved the problem.

    Hope this info will also solve your problem, Steve.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-03T13:09:07+00:00

    Thank you verymuch. It is solved now. :)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-28T03:38:12+00:00

    Hi

    Thanks for your reply.

    Creating an account helps analyze whether your current account configuration is wrong and the ICONS are randomly sorted. This can be used to narrow down the problem.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-07-27T02:37:00+00:00

    Hi

    Welcome to Microsoft community.

    In order to better narrow down your problem, if you create a new local administrator account, do the same problems still exist?

    If the problem persists in your new account, use the Windows image to fix your current Windows system configuration. This is a system repair process that will not affect your data and files, please rest assured.

    Disclaimer: Let’s try performing an in-place install or in-place upgrade which will refresh your Windows files and operating system without removing files or applications. That being said, we always recommend that if you have important data, you should back it up before making large system changes. If you want to back up your data first, please do so.

    Wait until the repair is complete and check again to see if the problem is gone.

    Please feel free to let me know if you have any further updates, thanks.

    Best regards

    Derrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments