Can someone PLEASE help me as I'm fed up of my desktop constantly rearranging all my icons,no matter how many times I try to stop this and even though I've used the supposedly failsafe settings on my PC,it still rearranges them aligning everything to the side in an orderly fashion....BORING!!
So is there a 100% easy way of stopping this please anyone?
Yes,that sounds about the case mate!
There might be another way to accomplish what you want but this is what just worked for me.
Right clicked on the desktop to pull up the desktop menu.
Selected View
Ensured both Auto arrange icons & Align icons to grid are unchecked.
Turn On or Off Auto Arrange Desktop Icons in Windows 10 General Tips Tutorials
--- That is the key: unchecked them before rearranging
Rearranged some icons in different areas of the desktop
Shut down
Started back up
All of the rearranged icons were where I had placed them.
Install a program like DesktopOK.
Arrange the icons the way you want then tell DesktopOK to save the layout. Set it's options to start when windows starts and restore icon position on boot. That should resolve the problem, no matter what Microsoft does to them. I've been using it for years.
Also, you can right click on the DesktopOK icon in the System area of the taskbar and select the layout you want (you can save multiple) and it will restore the icons to that if they some how get messed up. Great program and it's free.
What generally works for me is to arrange icons as wanted, then press F5. That tells Windows to remember the arrangement for this monitor resolution. If the resolution gets changed the icons will move, but they should return where you want when the resolution is restored.
1. Some programs (such as computer games in particular) change the screen resolution when you run them. When it happens, Windows automatically re-arranges the desktop icons to fit the new screen size. When you exit the game, the screen resolution may change back, but the icons have already been re-arranged. Sound familiar? If you've noticed that the icons change their positions after you run a particular program, this might be the case. What is the solution? Not to run that programor look through its settings, maybe there is an option to adjust the screen resolution it uses. Contact the company that makes the offending program, and they might be able to help.
2. If only some icons are moving after you save changes to the documents they represent, it could be because the program that saves the changes actually recreates a new document from scratch, and it makes Windows to find a new position for the icon rather than reuse the old one. As suggested in the comments below, a solution to such a problem is not to save documents themselves on the desktop. Instead, save them to some other folder, such as Documents, and create shortcuts to the documents on the Desktop. This way, when you save the document, the shortcut will not be changed, and it should keep its position on the desktop.
3. If Windows keeps rearranging the icons even after you've tried the previous suggestions, another possibility is that you have a faulty video card or an outdated driver for the video card. You see, if the video card or its driver do not behave well, they may change the resolution spontaneously, and when the resolution changes, it causes Windows to rearrange the icons on the desktop, too. If this is the case, first of all check for updates to your video card driver, and install a new version, if available. Keep in mind that you may need to search the web site of the company that manufactured your video card for the latest driver for your specific model. If updating the driver does not solve the problem, try tweaking the video card settings, such as changing its resolution or the display mode.
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