This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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.
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.
Right-click the desktop. Select Personalize. Select Themes and scroll down and select Desktop icon settings. Near the bottom left of the Desktop Icon Settings dialog, uncheck Allow themes to change desktop icons.
I found this on google and it helped me.
When I did this it immediately moved my icons again! :(
This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.
Comments have been turned off. Learn more
this may be the dumbest suggestion i've ever seen on this forum. borderline insanity, full-blown stupid.
I follow these steps and it does not work. In my case the icons automatically rearrange alphabetically every time after the computer screen goes into sleep mode. When it comes out of sleep mode they are rearranged. On my desktop the auto arrange icons is turned off and so is the align icons to grid.
