Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. Windows screwing up icon layout

Windows screwing up icon layout

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
businesshelpquestion
48 Posts 34 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • P PIEBALDconsult

    Some people like Macs. :shrug:

    G Offline
    G Offline
    Gary Wheeler
    wrote on last edited by
    #28

    Actually, I'm not a Mac user. I've just never liked a cluttered desktop. I'll drop stuff there temporarily at times, but it's usually empty.

    Software Zen: delete this;

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • D Dan Neely

      Seen it in every version since at least XP. Most commonly when something triggers a screen resolution change. This was a recurring dumpsterfire at my old job when going from docked and laptop lid closed to undocked and laptop screen in use. At home I get it occasionally when installing a GFX driver update independently from windows update (which I assume does it during the reboot phase to avoid damage).

      Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt

      D Offline
      D Offline
      dandy72
      wrote on last edited by
      #29

      Dan Neely wrote:

      Seen it in every version since at least XP.

      You're not going back far enough. I've seen icons getting shuffled around on the desktop since 95. At least it never happened on Windows 3.1, with its grouped Program Manager.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • L Lost User

        Same here for a Long time. Finally decided to install a thing called "DesktopOK" to restore the Desktop :)

        G Offline
        G Offline
        Gaz5700
        wrote on last edited by
        #30

        Same here. One double click and they are back where they are supposed to be!

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • C Chris Maunder

          Is it just me - does Windows really just hate me - or is the issue of Windows (10) screwing up your icon placement on your desktop reasonably widespread. I'm sitting here minding my own business and suddenly the background flickers and all my extremely OCDly organised icons are all, once again, stacked up on the left hand side of the screen. Anyone else being plagued by this?

          cheers Chris Maunder

          J Offline
          J Offline
          Jono Stewart
          wrote on last edited by
          #31

          On a Surface? Generally Windows 10 is all good on other machines, but my Surface likes to s**t itself every now and again (more frequently than that - I think it may need a prostate check) and explorer crashes and restarts resulting in the icons get loosely spaced, anchored top-left.

          A 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • J Jono Stewart

            On a Surface? Generally Windows 10 is all good on other machines, but my Surface likes to s**t itself every now and again (more frequently than that - I think it may need a prostate check) and explorer crashes and restarts resulting in the icons get loosely spaced, anchored top-left.

            A Offline
            A Offline
            Anthony Appleyard
            wrote on last edited by
            #32

            I keep my icons stacked at the left, and if I want one, I look for it in alphabetical order.

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • C Chris Maunder

              Is it just me - does Windows really just hate me - or is the issue of Windows (10) screwing up your icon placement on your desktop reasonably widespread. I'm sitting here minding my own business and suddenly the background flickers and all my extremely OCDly organised icons are all, once again, stacked up on the left hand side of the screen. Anyone else being plagued by this?

              cheers Chris Maunder

              C Offline
              C Offline
              cmaia
              wrote on last edited by
              #33

              Happens sometimes, not only on Windows 10. You may try [^]

              C.Maia

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • P PIEBALDconsult

                Wouldn't know. I keep mine bare. Like a normal person.

                M Offline
                M Offline
                maze3
                wrote on last edited by
                #34

                PIEBALDconsult wrote:

                Wouldn't know. I keep mine bare. Like a normal person.

                including setting your desktop background to a Bear?

                P 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • C Chris Maunder

                  Is it just me - does Windows really just hate me - or is the issue of Windows (10) screwing up your icon placement on your desktop reasonably widespread. I'm sitting here minding my own business and suddenly the background flickers and all my extremely OCDly organised icons are all, once again, stacked up on the left hand side of the screen. Anyone else being plagued by this?

                  cheers Chris Maunder

                  M Offline
                  M Offline
                  Member 12266605
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #35

                  I find that sometimes after a major update the icons end up stacked against the left side point the screen. I am a normal person. I have yet to see anyone who uses Windows who has a blank screen!

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • Richard Andrew x64R Richard Andrew x64

                    I haven't seen the icons get rearranged, but I HAVE seen the desktop and taskbar refresh themselves sometimes. It's as if Explorer (the shell) is being rebooted.

                    The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

                    M Offline
                    M Offline
                    milo xml
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #36

                    I've seen that as well. I've been blaming our Symantec AV though. (Mostly because I like blaming everything on that)

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • C Chris Maunder

                      Is it just me - does Windows really just hate me - or is the issue of Windows (10) screwing up your icon placement on your desktop reasonably widespread. I'm sitting here minding my own business and suddenly the background flickers and all my extremely OCDly organised icons are all, once again, stacked up on the left hand side of the screen. Anyone else being plagued by this?

                      cheers Chris Maunder

                      S Offline
                      S Offline
                      stevev6
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #37

                      Those are not your icons Chris. They belong to Microsoft...didn't you read the license. Considering the number of tools available to undo this (I have one on my machine) it obviously happens to a great number of users.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • C Chris Maunder

                        Is it just me - does Windows really just hate me - or is the issue of Windows (10) screwing up your icon placement on your desktop reasonably widespread. I'm sitting here minding my own business and suddenly the background flickers and all my extremely OCDly organised icons are all, once again, stacked up on the left hand side of the screen. Anyone else being plagued by this?

                        cheers Chris Maunder

                        A Offline
                        A Offline
                        Asday
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #38

                        Why anyone would ever have icons on their desktop terrifies and disgusts me. I wish my 4k screen didn't flicker when I turn it on from standby, requiring me to unplug and replug the DisplayPort, then move the start bar back off to the left screen, then resize the start bar to fit the day name in the clock. THAT'S a real annoyance. :/

                        C 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • L Lost User

                          Used to happen after video driver updates, or display setting changes. I now keep a screen capture of my desktop just so I can put all my shortcut icons back in the same place and order again.

                          D Offline
                          D Offline
                          Dennis Saeva
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #39

                          Video driver updates I see mentioned already. I have had a few programs that are productivity and game based - that have the ability to work in a window or fullscreen do the same. The screen flashes and or resets all or just some of the icons on the desktop. I find that if I have moved things around and have not right clicked on the mouse on the desktop to refresh the screen, whatever I haved moved sometimes moves back.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • A Asday

                            Why anyone would ever have icons on their desktop terrifies and disgusts me. I wish my 4k screen didn't flicker when I turn it on from standby, requiring me to unplug and replug the DisplayPort, then move the start bar back off to the left screen, then resize the start bar to fit the day name in the clock. THAT'S a real annoyance. :/

                            C Offline
                            C Offline
                            Chris Maunder
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #40

                            That's a fairly harsh reaction. Just to amuse you then: - I have shortcuts to common sites I use. It saves me a couple of clicks - I often need to work on multiple documents and I store shortcuts to the folders those documents are in on the desktop - I have the bin and a shortcut to "This PC" - I have shortcuts to Dropbox because it saves a couple of clicks - I'll often have a few temp files lying around. Not many, but maybe half a dozen - I have shortcuts to some important maintenance scripts All this could absolutely be replaced by QuickLinks in Explorer, or pinning them to the taskbar, or using the Start Menu, but I like to just double click and go.

                            cheers Chris Maunder

                            A 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • C Chris Maunder

                              That's a fairly harsh reaction. Just to amuse you then: - I have shortcuts to common sites I use. It saves me a couple of clicks - I often need to work on multiple documents and I store shortcuts to the folders those documents are in on the desktop - I have the bin and a shortcut to "This PC" - I have shortcuts to Dropbox because it saves a couple of clicks - I'll often have a few temp files lying around. Not many, but maybe half a dozen - I have shortcuts to some important maintenance scripts All this could absolutely be replaced by QuickLinks in Explorer, or pinning them to the taskbar, or using the Start Menu, but I like to just double click and go.

                              cheers Chris Maunder

                              A Offline
                              A Offline
                              Asday
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #41

                              Harsh but fair. :D - Bookmarks bar in chrome; a single click, and I always have my browser open; - My applications know where my documents are, because I've been working on them; - Disabled the recycle bin, WinKey+E for explorer; - Don't use dropbox, but can't you doubleclick on the icon in the systray? - D:\temp; - My scripts are in `PATH`. Look at that, it's almost like we can use an operating system in different ways. ;)

                              C 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • A Asday

                                Harsh but fair. :D - Bookmarks bar in chrome; a single click, and I always have my browser open; - My applications know where my documents are, because I've been working on them; - Disabled the recycle bin, WinKey+E for explorer; - Don't use dropbox, but can't you doubleclick on the icon in the systray? - D:\temp; - My scripts are in `PATH`. Look at that, it's almost like we can use an operating system in different ways. ;)

                                C Offline
                                C Offline
                                Chris Maunder
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #42

                                Next we're going to see cats and dogs sleeping together, C developers embracing garbage collection and browsers using consistent rendering models. OK, the last one was a joke.

                                cheers Chris Maunder

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • M maze3

                                  PIEBALDconsult wrote:

                                  Wouldn't know. I keep mine bare. Like a normal person.

                                  including setting your desktop background to a Bear?

                                  P Offline
                                  P Offline
                                  patbob
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #43

                                  maze3 wrote:

                                  including setting your desktop background to a Bear?

                                  Naw, he probably set it to Wonkavision of beer.

                                  I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • L Lost User

                                    You realise with w10 you're supposed to use uwp-metro with big ass baby blocks do you know how hard ms worked to give you that? and then gave it to you for free? show some appreciation and do what nads want's you to do: 1. just shut up and suck up whatever we give you as-is, 2. why? because after examining all of your data only we know what's best for you 3. and just because. please avoid the old efficient desktop with icons and such like things they way you like them the desktop and pretty much all customisation likely to be removed in future updates ... oh wait, you say only in some versions, isn't there supposed to be only one windows 10? good on ya ms, remove the confusion, by replacing it with even less understood product.

                                    K Offline
                                    K Offline
                                    kburgoyne1
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #44

                                    I hadn't noticed W10 stopping anyone from having desktop icons if that's what they prefer. W10 works great contrary to the comments from the "I hate change" crowd.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • L Lost User

                                      You realise with w10 you're supposed to use uwp-metro with big ass baby blocks do you know how hard ms worked to give you that? and then gave it to you for free? show some appreciation and do what nads want's you to do: 1. just shut up and suck up whatever we give you as-is, 2. why? because after examining all of your data only we know what's best for you 3. and just because. please avoid the old efficient desktop with icons and such like things they way you like them the desktop and pretty much all customisation likely to be removed in future updates ... oh wait, you say only in some versions, isn't there supposed to be only one windows 10? good on ya ms, remove the confusion, by replacing it with even less understood product.

                                      K Offline
                                      K Offline
                                      kburgoyne1
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #45

                                      I hadn't noticed W10 stopping anyone from having desktop icons if that's what they prefer. W10 works great contrary to the comments from the "I hate change" crowd.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • D Dave Kreskowiak

                                        Yeah, I just got hit by the same thing two days ago. I don't know what caused it. I had the 1703 update applied two weeks ago.

                                        System.ItDidntWorkException: Something didn't work as expected. A guide to posting questions on CodeProject

                                        Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
                                        Dave Kreskowiak

                                        H Offline
                                        H Offline
                                        Herbie Mountjoy
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #46

                                        Windows update seems to be working round the clock to undo all your carefully set preferences. I have almost given up trying.

                                        We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • G Gary Wheeler

                                          If you do that to a friend, I can't imagine what happens to your enemies...

                                          Software Zen: delete this;

                                          H Offline
                                          H Offline
                                          Herbie Mountjoy
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #47

                                          It's more fun if you flip the image horizontally.

                                          We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Don't have an account? Register

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups