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General discussion

Desktop icons rearrange themselves

Jan 31, 2009 9:09PM PST

Desktop icons that rearrange themselves on reboot or a refresh or when a program starts seems quite common.

The usual workaround is to use microsoft's layout.exe or a third party program (eg Iconoid) to save and restore icon positions but this is not a solution.

After much time I tracked the problem down to a registry with corrupted 'permissions':
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop
I could not get into Bags\1 - 'Error on opening' message but I could get into permissions which I reset including the 'owner' tab.
I imported a copy of another computers bags\1 settings although it had no similarity regarding icon settings. Made sure the icons were how I wanted them positioned and rebooted. Problem solved.

I hope this posting helps others with this tedious problem.Desktop icons that rearrange themselves on reboot or a refresh or when a program starts seems quite common.

The usual workaround is to use microsoft's layout.exe or a third party program (eg Iconoid) to save and restore icon positions but this is not a solution.

After much time I tracked the problem down to a registry with corrupted 'permissions':
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop
I could not get into Bags\1 - 'Error on opening' message but I could get into permissions which I reset including the 'owner' tab.
I imported a copy of another computers bags\1 settings although it had no similarity regarding icon settings. Made sure the icons were how I wanted them positioned and rebooted. Problem solved.

I hope this posting helps others with this tedious problem.

Discussion is locked

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This is the answer
Jan 28, 2011 11:12AM PST

You my friend are a hero. Every search for this horribly annoying problem brought back the same old things to check. None of them were the answer. This is. This fixes it. I did this on two of my machines and they now behave perfectly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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This is what solved the desktop icons rearranging themselves
Aug 24, 2012 9:11PM PDT

The workaround of saxophone21 did not work for me.

I found this page with an answer that solved it:
http://answers.microsoft.com/es-es/windows/forum/windows_xp-desktop/cada-vez-que-arranco-windows-me-ordena/ba9fe34d-cb1e-4275-bf98-144f9db61a28

Basically, it says there that you have to rename (or delete) the file UsrClass.dat that is in a hidden folder at:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\
But to be able to do so, you must first login in an XP "user account" different from the one (USERNAME) that has the problem. I did that starting XP in Safe Mode (pressing F8 at the start) and login in the "Administrator" account.
I found the file UsrClass.dat , renamed it as UsrClass.dat.old and restarted the computer. The problem was solved.