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

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-01-18T15:32:56+00:00

    Well I've seen people recommend installing a program but that seems like an extreme measure to have to take. How is this not just a setting in Win11 or something simple? It didn't do it at first, until the most recent update, and while it did mess up again when I used the 4th monitor that wasn't the case for 2 of the 3 times it's done it (in 5 days).

    I also change out the icons on a daily basis. I have different versions of the same spreadsheet saved there for example as I am working on them, with different dates in the names. So even my desktop from 2 days ago was different than it is today by a handful of icons. If I had the same ones all the time and never changed them then maybe a program like you suggest would work, but I don't know that's the case for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-18T15:57:36+00:00

    Good luck and have a nice day. Steve

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-03-05T16:37:12+00:00

    Thank you. To me, this was the best answer.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-03-13T15:27:51+00:00

    Really? You want me to do all of that just so that I can keep my desktop icons from moving? How about you fix it on your end. This has been going on for me for about 6 years, windows 10 and 11, different laptops. Fix your damn software!

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-03-24T05:01:59+00:00

    I have a similar problem except my icons get rearranged after every reboot.
    It has been happening since the last Windows update.

    I have not installed any new software, and my desktop icon arrangement has been working fine for years until the update.
    2024-03 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5035853) seems to be the last update that caused the problem.

    If for some reason my system has become corrupted, then Windows update did it.

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