Win10 desktop icons rearranging on boot

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  1. WillyDiddly
    Posts : 8
    windows 10
       New #1

    Win10 desktop icons rearranging on boot


    This problem is as old as Win itself, it was in every version of Win and now in 10 I have it too. Everything worked fine until a few days back everytime i boot or restart the PC all the icons go to the left side of the screen and I can't seem to figure out why. Yes, the automatic icon arranging is turned off, yes there is no malware in my PC, no I don't have dual monitors and no I do not want to install 3rd party software to solve this problem. I want to get to the root of it and solve it.
    Any ideas? It seems to me that the file or whatever it is where the information about the desktop is stored resets every time you turn the PC off and it is very annoying.
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  3. Ztruker
    Posts : 14,046
    Windows 11 Pro X64 22H2 22621.1848
       New #2

    Arrange as you want them then right click on the Desktop and select Refresh, see if that helps.
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  4. WillyDiddly
    Posts : 8
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Nah, not working... as soon as I hit refresh all the icons jump back to the left... from what I've read on the internet there is probably a problem in the registry, I even found the registry key that is supposedly corrupted as some people have suggested on other forums, but you're supposed to delete it and I can't. It just tells me that it's not possible to delete when I try...
    I even deleted everything that I've installed since the problem occured, but no luck with that either... All I can think of is that a few days back my pc crashed (RAM problem) and it restarted itself.. (tho I can't recall if the problem has already been present or if it was after) so I would say that something got corrupted due to the unexpected crash and now it's misbehaving... and I don't really feel like reinstalling windows because of such a "trivial" yet very frustrating problem :-\ ...
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  6. Ztruker
    Posts : 14,046
    Windows 11 Pro X64 22H2 22621.1848
       New #4

    While you're trying to get to the root cause seems like it would be a good idea to use a program that can remember and restore the Desktop icon placement instead of you having to do this every time.

    I use DesktopOK. No install, just run it. If you don't select to have it restore placement at startup then you should be able to continue working on this and still be able to put the icons back with a couple mouse clicks.
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  7. WillyDiddly
    Posts : 8
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    Welp, that's funny... even though I did not want to use any 3rd party programs to solve it I gave your suggestion a go.. dowloaded DesktopOK, took the time to rearrange everything nicely and then I clicked to save the layout in DesktopOK and voila, everything jumped back to the left side of the screen and got saved as such ... sooo.. I guess I'm reinstalling Win today...

    UPDATE:
    .. so since there is no working solution on the internet anywhere (despite this being a problem since win 95 ) I decided to reinstall the Win10 and now the problem is "solved" .. for as long as it won't happen out of nowhere again... too bad we can't figure out what's wrong .. but I have tried all the suggestions I found and none work.. only reinstalling..
    Last edited by WillyDiddly; 01 Sep 2015 at 06:27.
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  8. Ztruker
    Posts : 14,046
    Windows 11 Pro X64 22H2 22621.1848
       New #6

    That is truly weird. Good luck.
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  9. Malkere
    Posts : 6
    Windows 10
       New #7

    same problem, not going to reinstall
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  10. WillyDiddly
    Posts : 8
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    Malkere said:
    same problem, not going to reinstall
    Well, if you have exactly the same problem as I had then you will have to reinstall... no other solution to this..
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  12. Malkere
    Posts : 6
    Windows 10
       New #9

    that is not a solution its just resetting the factory defaults. whatever caused it will cause it again. Glad for you if you're happy with it in the mean time. I have no interest in redefining everything I've done since I initially installed and will continue to look for a solution.
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  13. WillyDiddly
    Posts : 8
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       New #10

    You can reinstall your Win while keeping all the apps, programs and documents.. so you will lost nothing else but 45 mins of your time..
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