Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Desktop shortcuts repeatedly get mysteriously resorted/moved around.

Mar 3, 2004 3:14AM PST

Hi,
I have approximately 40 shortcuts (My Computer, C-Drive, various Windows Explorer
folders, some temporary web page links, etc) on my desktop & I've arranged them in
a way that's to my liking.

Lately, I'll close a web page or go from whatever else I'm doing to the desktop to
see that the shortcuts have been dramatically rearranged (not sure why this happens
or what it is I'm doing to cause this). Anyway, it's kind of a pain to repeatedly
arrange them back to the spots that I've grown accustomed to accessing them in. I'd
like to know if it's possible to prevent them from moving around or at least learn
what's causing them to do this in the 1st place.

As far as the desktop's settings, "Auto Arrange" & "Align to Grid" are selected...
(Elsewhere, it's been recommended to me that I install some supplemental software that would allow the exact desktop settings to be saved & reset in case they're rearranged, but I would like to avoid adding another running process to the scenario - I would think that this issue could be solved by simply tweaking the existing settings.)

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:Desktop shortcuts repeatedly get mysteriously resorted/moved around.
Mar 3, 2004 3:37AM PST

The short answer is that Microsoft didn't implement a desktop that would do that. There are third party tools you should look at.

Bob

- Collapse -
Re:Desktop shortcuts repeatedly get mysteriously resorted/moved around.
Mar 3, 2004 7:30AM PST

I would uncheck Auto Arrange.

- Collapse -
Re:Desktop shortcuts repeatedly get mysteriously resorted/moved around.
Mar 3, 2004 7:33AM PST

I ck the following:
Align to Grid
Show Desktop Icons
Lock Web Items on Desktop

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Desktop shortcuts repeatedly get mysteriously resorted/moved around.
Mar 4, 2004 4:12AM PST

Yeah, the consensus @ all the forums where I raised this concern is to uncheck "Auto-Arrange". However, I've been told that Windows might still randomly have these hiccups regardless & for that I've installed the PC Magazine app "Wintidy", which can save the layout of the sortcuts & automatically revert back to them at any time.

Thanks for the replies,
Roosh.