Most annoying windows problem ever - MS never fixed!

[John Phoenix]

I am a gamer. I like to have lots of icons on my desktop. I do not always play all games at the desktop resolution. Every time I open a game with a different resolution the icons on the desktop always get rearranged when i close the game and return to my normal resolution. They should go back to the positions they were in before, but they do not. This is mega annoying. I think this happens if you have auto arrange checked or not.

I have had this problem ever since windows 95. Every windows does this. I am using win 7 64 bit currently.

Is there a way to lock the desktop icons so they will not get rearranged?

 

[DaMulta]

No up folder button past windows Xp......

 

[95Viper]

HOW CAN I LOCK DESKTOP ICONS?

I hope this helps.

 

[twilyth]

I think what you're calling "problems" Microsoft calls "undocumented enhancements". FYI /snarky

 

[IINexusII]

well its because when you change the resolution the icons are going to get cut off the window, so it automatically rearranges it so you could see all of them with a smaller resolution. i guess either cut down on the shortcuts or use something like a dock to put them in

 

[newtekie1]

You know, I don't think my icons have ever moved on my desktop when I play games at lower resolutions than my desktop resolution, at least not with any of the modern Windows OSes... Let me test...

Edit: Nope, just fired up CS:Source and lowered the resolution, started a game, then exited directly to the desktop and not a moved icon in site... In fact, I just tried directly lowering the desktop resolution, and the icons moved. I then change the resolution back and the icons went back to where they were...that is awesome!

 

[Sasqui]

You know, I don't think my icons have ever moved on my desktop when I play games at lower resolutions than my desktop resolution, at least not with any of the modern Windows OSes... Let me test...

Edit: Nope, just fired up CS:Source and lowered the resolution, started a game, then exited directly to the desktop and not a moved icon in site...

Something is changing his desktop Rez and it's getting saved, not sure why. I did this test...

Try this: change your resolution to something low, like 1024x768

Try it and say "no" to keep setting. The icons will go back to the way they were
Try it and say "yes" to keep settings, they icons will move to fit the screen. Go back to your normal (high rez) screen, the ocons are left in the low-rez state.

 

[newtekie1]

Something is changing his desktop Rez and it's getting saved, not sure why. I did this test...

Try this: change your resolution to something low, like 1024x768

Try it and say "no" to keep setting. The icons will go back to the way they were
Try it and say "yes" to keep settings, they icons will move to fit the screen. Go back to your normal (high rez) screen, the ocons are left in the low-rez state.

That is exactly what I did. Said yes to keep the resolution, completely exited the resolution change window, then went back in and changed it back, my icons all went back to where they were.

Edit: Just to prove I'm not crazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe6dPoLGP5c
It is crappy quality thanks to youtube, but you get the idea. There the resolution is changed to 1024x768 and all the icons go to shit, including the "programs" icon that is supposed to be all the way in the upper right corner and is placed all the way in the bottom left. Changing the resolution back puts all the icons right back where they were.

 

[John Phoenix]

No up folder button past windows Xp......

Classic Shell adds the missing Up button back to all Explorer windows and also has a few other enhancements. You have a choice to install the up button and not the full classic shell application if you want to.

I agree, this was very annoying till Classic Shell fixed this issue. Check it out, it's Free.

http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

 

[newtekie1]

Classic Shell adds the missing Up button back to all Explorer windows and also has a few other enhancements. You have a choice to install the up button and not the full classic shell application if you want to.

I agree, this was very annoying till Classic Shell fixed this issue. Check it out, it's Free.

http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

I've been without an "up" button for so long, I don't know if I like having one again!

 

[John Phoenix]

Something is changing his desktop Rez and it's getting saved, not sure why. I did this test...

Try this: change your resolution to something low, like 1024x768

Try it and say "no" to keep setting. The icons will go back to the way they were
Try it and say "yes" to keep settings, they icons will move to fit the screen. Go back to your normal (high rez) screen, the ocons are left in the low-rez state.

O.k. I tried this exactly.. and it's a no go. After I did the above I started up a game that I knew was running in 1024x768. I noted the position of my icons before starting. After closing the game, the icons were rearranged again.

I do use Fences by Stardock to lock some folders and this app is really great. It puts anything you want into one or more user defined fences and locks them, but not every icon do I want inside a fence.

I also looked at the web page from 95Viper but those suggestions only work with windows XP.

I find that interesting.. in right click desktop menu in XP you can access and lock icon settings through the tools that configure web content on your desktop.. but Windows 7 does not seem to have any options like that.. I wonder why.. or if I just cannot find them.

 

[John Phoenix]

well its because when you change the resolution the icons are going to get cut off the window, so it automatically rearranges it so you could see all of them with a smaller resolution. i guess either cut down on the shortcuts or use something like a dock to put them in

I have just made some new folders to become "main storage folders" for other folders and stuff, to cut down on the number of icons on the desktop. I put everything in categories except shortcuts. I can easily fit all desktop icons on a 800 x 600 resolution and they still get rearranged when rez switching when there is no good reason for windows to do so.

I can understand slightly moving icons to fit the screen much like word wrap does in text documents, but I have icons that will move radically.. icons in the row 1 column 1, can now show up in the last row and column.

 

[John Phoenix]

Edit: Just to prove I'm not crazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe6dPoLGP5c
It is crappy quality thanks to youtube, but you get the idea. There the resolution is changed to 1024x768 and all the icons go to shit, including the "programs" icon that is supposed to be all the way in the upper right corner and is placed all the way in the bottom left. Changing the resolution back puts all the icons right back where they were.

O.k. yes.. this will work.. until I start a game.. then everything goes to hell again. LOL

 

[newtekie1]

I have just made some new folders to become "main storage folders" for other folders and stuff, to cut down on the number of icons on the desktop. I put everything in categories except shortcuts. I can easily fit all desktop icons on a 800 x 600 resolution and they still get rearranged when rez switching when there is no good reason for windows to do so.

I can understand slightly moving icons to fit the screen much like word wrap does in text documents, but I have icons that will move radically.. icons in the row 1 column 1, can now show up in the last row and column.

That is very odd, I've never experienced that. Are these really old games you are playing?

 

[John Phoenix]

That is very odd, I've never experienced that. Are these really old games you are playing?

Nope. All games do this for my system. I am starting to wonder if Stardock Fences has anything to do with this.

I did find an app called IconRestorer http://fsl.sytes.net/iconrestorer.html that will save the position of your icons and then restore them with a click of a button.. but it wont do it automaticly on resize and this step I should not have to do anyway.

I play Lots of games and I even had this problem with XP. It has always been annoying for me. I tried with auto align to grid and auto arrange on or off and i get the same results.

 

[temp02]

No up folder button past windows Xp......

You can still use the backspace key as a shortcut for the "up button" (parent folder) command.

 

[Mussels]

Nope. All games do this for my system. I am starting to wonder if Stardock Fences has anything to do with this.

I did find an app called IconRestorer http://fsl.sytes.net/iconrestorer.html that will save the position of your icons and then restore them with a click of a button.. but it wont do it automaticly on resize and this step I should not have to do anyway.

I play Lots of games and I even had this problem with XP. It has always been annoying for me. I tried with auto align to grid and auto arrange on or off and i get the same results.

at this stage i'd definitely say a program is messing with it, because i can even go so far as to change monitors (with different resolutions) and win7 remembers the locations of desktop icons and reverts them when i change back.

 

[95Viper]

Nope. All games do this for my system. I am starting to wonder if Stardock Fences has anything to do with this.

I did find an app called IconRestorer http://fsl.sytes.net/iconrestorer.html that will save the position of your icons and then restore them with a click of a button.. but it wont do it automaticly on resize and this step I should not have to do anyway.

I play Lots of games and I even had this problem with XP. It has always been annoying for me. I tried with auto align to grid and auto arrange on or off and i get the same results.

Maybe...
Shirley on the stardock forum stated this in a thread dated April 20th, 2010, in post 20:

"We've been able to reproduce the single icon fallout issue, and Jeff is working on fixing, but the complete "icons go haywire" issues we have not. Anyone with the latter issue who can get me a screencast of what is happening please post or PM."

 

[John Phoenix]

Maybe...
Shirley on the stardock forum stated this in a thread dated April 20th, 2010, in post 20:

"We've been able to reproduce the single icon fallout issue, and Jeff is working on fixing, but the complete "icons go haywire" issues we have not. Anyone with the latter issue who can get me a screencast of what is happening please post or PM."

Thanks. I'll look into it.

 

[Sasqui]

That is exactly what I did. Said yes to keep the resolution, completely exited the resolution change window, then went back in and changed it back, my icons all went back to where they were.

Edit: Just to prove I'm not crazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe6dPoLGP5c
It is crappy quality thanks to youtube, but you get the idea. There the resolution is changed to 1024x768 and all the icons go to shit, including the "programs" icon that is supposed to be all the way in the upper right corner and is placed all the way in the bottom left. Changing the resolution back puts all the icons right back where they were.

Hmmm... I think the difference might be that you have "Auto Arrange" turned on.