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.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-06-03T18:14:19+00:00

    Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like your IT department is doing its best to mitigate the effect of this annoying bug. On my Windows 11 machine, the issue continues to occur in about 30% of power-ups, and my work-around of deleting the IconCache files and restarting restores the icons 100% of the time. As I offered earlier, I have saved copies of the IconCache file before and after a scatter event and would be happy to provide them to Microsoft.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-06-01T16:59:02+00:00

    Here is the simple answer you deserved rather than all the ridiculous MS support gymnastics:

    Uncheck Allow themes to change desktop icons at the following location:

    Settings (app)->Personalization->Themes->Desktop icon settings

    THE ANSWER!!!

    THANK YOU MOST KINDLY!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-05-21T19:28:56+00:00

    Unfortunately, I don't have Microsoft 3D viewer. Nothing has been installed except Microsoft updates since I got this laptop in June. It's done it since day one.

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

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

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

    Good luck and have a nice day. Steve

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