Desktop Icon Arrangement

[Bigaldoc]

My Lounge search skills may be lacking 'cause I can't find any mention of this.

Every time I boot my new laptop (Win 7 Home Premium 64) the desktop icons rearrange themselves into a new order, including leaving empty spaces.

Googling suggests turning off align to grid and auto arrange which I've done. I also saw one place with a registry hack that I'm reluctant to do unless it's absolutely necessary.

Anyone got any hints, please?

[HansV]

Try this (in addition to turning off Auto Arrange):

- Right-click an empty part of the desktop.
- Select Refresh from the context menu. Some people state that this "fixes" the icons for them.

If that doesn't help:

- Right-click an empty part of the desktop.
- Select Personalize from the context menu.
- In the control panel that appears, click 'Change desktop icons' in the navigation pane on the left hand side.
- Clear the check box 'Allow themes to change desktop icons'.
- Click OK.

But this problem appears to have as many "solutions" as there are people suffering from it (switch to a different anti-virus program, turn Align to Grid ON, get a different graphics card, turn Align to Grid OFF, run a utility originally intended for Vista, ...)

[John Gray]

Having tried DesktopOK and a couple of other programs, I have found the best program to save desktop icons, and, more importantly, restore them to the correct location if they get messed up (in my case rarely, and only with nVidia graphics card driver updates) was DesktopCmd in a BATch file (surprise!). There is a GUI version called Desktop Restore.

Even this program doesn't get the restore correct every time, but a second run usually gets the icons positioned exactly as required, or pretty close. It seems to be a Windows 7 peculiarity that correctly positioning desktop icons is a bit hit and miss... (Why don't Microsoft do it themselves, eh?!)

[viking33]

Also, I have my settings so the the "Allow themes to change desktop icons"
UNCHECKED, as Hans suggested. This has always given me steady unmovable icons in Win 7.

[Sundog]

I am a fan of Fences, http://download.cnet.com/Fences/3000-20 ... 09535.html, free software.

I dim my fenced icons using the transparency slider so the icons are dimly visible, but show at 100% on a mouse-over.

I upgraded to Fences Pro ($19.95), http://download.cnet.com/Fences-Pro/300 ... ag=mncol;1, for more control.

[Bigaldoc]

I did try those things suggested by Hans and at the first re-boot the icons were moved around again. What's so strange is the fact that when they rearrange, it leaves empty spots which indicates to me that it's likely a "bug" in Windows.

Surprising that as much yelling as there is, you'd think MS would fix it.

[DaveA]

On the 6 machines that are running Windows 7, we do NOT have this issue. The sorting and displaying of desktop icons are working as designed.

We do not put very many icons on the desktop, but what few we have stay put between start ups. We do not use any type of sorting or the auto arrange. We arrange them the way and where we want them.

[MalcolmWalker]

Surprising that as much yelling as there is, you'd think MS would fix it.

Hmm - I have two computers with Windows 7 operating systems and there are no problems with the desktop icons on both computers; this is a non-issue for me. (Fingers crossed!)
In the right-click Desktop context menu the selected View settings are:
Small icons; Auto arrange icons; Align icons to grid; Show desktop icons; Show desktop gadgets.

[ChrisGreaves]

the desktop icons

I'm feeling particularly grumpy today.
After wossname sent us all that rains & snow, we had clear skies last night, so the wind blew from the north and we all froze over.

(signed) grumpy of toronto.

A.K.A. Why do people flood their desktops with icons?

[Sundog]

Because, if they are well organized as I mentioned above, for me it's easier to click on something visual than to 1) click the Start button, 2) type characters in the Search box, 3) select and 4) click on the desired program. How about frequently used documents as desktop icons? Without them the steps increase yet again.

[Bigaldoc]

A.K.A. Why do people flood their desktops with icons?

"Flood" is a pretty extreme analogy, Chris. I normally have about a dozen icons on my desktop and the reason is that it saves me from EVER having to use the Start Menu.

I also have the desktop toolbar on my taskbar, near the notification area, so that toolbar pops up a nice vertical stack of the items on my desktop and it only takes two clicks to access most everything I do with my computer.

Truthfully, where the icons are located is not "really" important because of what I said above. It's just one of those little "why" annoyances of Windows.

[BobH]

I'm still in XP land and don't know about 7 land, but I clean up my desktop often, deleting the shortcut icons. I also do NOT use Start/Programs to launch apps. Instead I drag the shortcuts to the left-hand part of the system bar at the bottom of the screen. I allow only three icons visible in that area: Desktop, Thunderbird, and Firefox. I can right click and the stack of shortcuts that I've added pop up in a column. I arrange their order by dragging them into relative positions in the stack. I keep apps at the top in alpha order and shortcuts to folders at rhe bottom. I use Firefox as my browser almost exclusively.

Works for me, but I'll leave it to Hans or others to correct my terminology about screen geography. This technique might be specific to Firefox. I don't know.

HTH

[Bigaldoc]

I've "settled" for checking Auto-Arrange and at least that keeps them all in a vertical alignment.

As I've mentioned, I use the Desktop Toolbar anyway for 99% of the items I run on a daily basis which means I hardly EVER have to go to the Start Menu. I admit, some of these are folders, but it's quick and painless to run something. I also, as most of you, have a number of programs pinned to the Taskbar and that adds to the quickness and ease of access.

I guess it's a matter of getting used to it...

[ChrisGreaves]

"Flood" is a pretty extreme analogy,

Hi Al. You should maybe see what i see up here north of the border. It's not uncommon for me to sit at a desktop screen that is littered wall-to-wall with icons.
I'm not kidding.
I sit there (meter ticking) while they double-click on one icon, no, that's not it, close the appliaction, double-click on another, no that's not it, close the application, ...
And sadly this sort of user really thinks that they know Windows "been using it since three-point-one came out" they boast proudly.
I mentally multiple 30 wasted minutes per day by about 20 years, and ...


Why would you not use the Quicklaunch bar? It is one click per application, right?

[ChrisGreaves]

I'm still in XP land ... I drag the shortcuts to the left-hand part of the system bar at the bottom of the screen.

The QuickLaunch bar?

Untitled.png

To add a program to the Quick Launch bar

[Bigaldoc]

Why would you not use the Quicklaunch bar? It is one click per application, right?

This is a BIG BLUSH reply, Chris!!!

Only because the majority of what I have on my desktop is folders containing the icons for stuff I use every day.

AND, because of the fact that I never investigated it, I didn't know that you could put a FOLDER shortcut on the QL bar. I thought they had to be "applications." Thanks to your prod, I do know now!!!

It's gonna take my old brain awhile to decide what to do. Thanks!!!

[ChrisGreaves]

I didn't know that you could put a FOLDER shortcut on the QL bar.

Al, if you dig back far enough you'll find a post on the Lounge advising me to use the QuickLaunch bar ⁽¹⁾
Shortcuts are one of the un-sung gems of windows IMHO.
I will load a shortcut (icon) to a folder in another folder, either directly in the parental line, or on some other un-related folder.
For those who choose not to continue with DOS SUBST, it's a great time saver.
Here is my TrueCrypted drive, T:, with a shortcut to the folder where I store images for my desktop wallpaper. To store an image (no matter where I am) I navigate in the saveAs box to drive T:, choose the shortcut icon, and the images are saved in "T:\Greaves\Products\USER\Wallp\Source\", or whereever.
Note that in this case the shortcut refers to drive T, but it could as easily refer to "C:\Windows\inf\Windows Workflow Foundation 3.0.0.0\0000", or whereever, on a different drive.

33.png

⁽¹⁾ Disclaimer: I don't know that such a post/thread exists; I know only that just about everything I know about Windows I learned through The Lounge.

[BobH]

I know a very successful executive who has the worst mess of unorganized shortcut icons on hIs desk imaginable. There is absolutely no logic or order except happenstance. I offered to clean it up for him and organize things and, I swear, I thought he was going to attack me to prevent me doing so. It turns out that he is dyslexic and the chaos is order for him. To his credit, he doesn't hesitate at all when using the mouse to launch something. He did tell me one day that he needed a bigger monitor because he needed room to add new apps to the madness. He got a bigger monitor but not without suffering through a lesson on screen resolution from me. Although I have no doubt that he might have learned other, better navigation skills, he would never devote the time to do so. I would never insist on his doing it because he was, overall, such an effective and skillful leader and businessman.

[djohnson123]

Regarding the icons' moving around ... I use freeware called DeskTopOK ( http://www.softwareok.com/?Download=DesktopOK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ).
You can save the layout, or as many layouts as you want, and have that layout restored at boot time, or restore any saved layout whenever you want.
I've been using it for months and love it !

[mishmish3000]

Here where I work, I've run into two types of computer users: those who have icons for what they commonly use and need on their desktops, and those who create icons for many, many things--including things they use once and then never look at again. It makes it really hard to do computer support for those people, since they can't find anything!!! Click here-no, not what I thought it was... click there--no, that was last week's---it goes on and on.

Someone saw my desktop (at work I have XP) and asked me if I was a Mac person (gasp!!!) because my screen is so "clean" looking. I said no, I just can't stand a cluttered desktop. So this is what my desktop looks like... (see attached).

I guess it's just personal preference... same with organizing your files in a somewhat meaningful way in folders. Some people do, some don't. TomAYto, TomAHto... LOL

Happy Holidays to All!!!!
MishMish3000