Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 January 6

= January 6 =

Windows 10 desktop of HP Pavilion
I have this problem at least once a week. I have about 50 icons on my desktop. I spend time positioning them in groups but this morning for instance, I started my computer and I see ALL icons grouped on the left side of the desktop, all my groupings destroyed. Hiw to prevent it? Thanks, - AboutFace 22 (talk) 16:08, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * UltraMon has this functionality IIRC. &#40;&#40;&#40;The Quixotic Potato&#41;&#41;&#41; (talk) 16:13, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * http://store.steampowered.com/app/607380/Fences/ &#40;&#40;&#40;The Quixotic Potato&#41;&#41;&#41; (talk) 16:14, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * https://www.displayfusion.com/Features/ &#40;&#40;&#40;The Quixotic Potato&#41;&#41;&#41; (talk) 16:16, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I can recommend DisplayFusion, and also installing Win 7 which doesn't have this problem. 93.136.29.199 (talk) 21:16, 7 January 2018 (UTC)


 * This will happen if you delete the desktop.ini file on your desktop. Normally you won't see this file, but if you have enabled "Show hidden files" and then deleted desktop.ini, that would completely explain this.  The solution is simply to not delete that file or files (there may be two of them on the desktop).  CodeTalker (talk) 16:04, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately that isn't true. It is a known bug. &#40;&#40;&#40;The Quixotic Potato&#41;&#41;&#41; (talk) 19:56, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Are you sure the "auto arrange icons" option is off? [//forums.lenovo.com/t5/Windows-10-Knowledge-Base/How-Do-I-Keep-Desktop-Icons-From-Rearranging-After-Reboot-in/ta-p/3729574]. If it isn't you shouldn't be surprised they are rearranged and it's questionable if this is a bug. Otherwise when the resolution or scaling changes Windows will rearrange the icons as needed. However these should be preserved between changes. In other words, if you've set it up for one res, it should go back to that when you go back to the rest. There are various interactions with various programs and other things which can cause the arrangement to be lost and the way it works if it's lost it's not coming back, but this is definitely not something which happens to everyone, nor is this unique to Windows 10. If it keeps happening to you, you may be able to stop it by trying various things or you could use a third party utility (like those recommended above or many others) which locks the arrangement via some other fashion. Nil Einne (talk) 10:22, 9 January 2018 (UTC)