How lock/pin desktop icons once they are arranged?
Hiya, does anybody know of a way (in Windows 7) to lock/pin the desktop icons in place once you have arranged them? My desktop isn't exactly cluttered, I think, there are at any given moment some 45-50. For the sake of easy navigation I try to keep the number to a minimum. When I have moved the icons around so that they are grouped into categories (roughly) and have their fixed places, it's easy to find what I'm looking for, and one gets used to it, like the layout of ones apartment for example. The desktop 'feels like home' to put it simply, plus it looks good. But every once in a while upon boot they are moved to the left side of the screen, not sorted alphabetically (which, at least, would have been some help) but in completely random order so it takes unnecessarily long to find what youre looking for. I would understand it, and accept it, if it ocurred only after I, say, change the resolution, but it happens randomly, 'unprovoked'. Not a big problem, true, but kind of a drag, so if anybody knows how to pin/lock the icons in place I'd be very grateful to know how. Thank you!Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.
December 31st, 2009 5:24am

Hi, This behavior is by design, we do not have method to lock the icons. We will report your concern as a customer voice to our proper department. Thank you.Arthur Xie - MSFT
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January 6th, 2010 11:22am

Arthur's answer is a little misleading. Windows 7 will normally remember where you put your icons.I have no problem having my desktop icons remain where I've put them. In my case I've arranged them across the top and bottom of the screen.Automatic desktop rearrangement can be triggered if the system thinks the size of the screen has changed. You wouldn't be using an external monitor on a laptop, or remote desktop, or a "skin", or something else that might make Windows think the desktop has been changed and needs to be refreshed, would you?-Noel
January 6th, 2010 7:07pm

If the icons move after a reboot or shutdown then try using F5 after arranging or adding icons, or right-click the desktop and click 'Refresh'. That should lock the current icons in place wherever they are on your desktop -- this only locks the locations, not necessarily the order if you stack them in little heaps. Caveat: If you change a document with MS office it'll delete the old icon and generate a new one (which'll put it on the left side of your desktop). I use OpenOffice which seems to leave the icons intact.
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June 29th, 2011 3:11pm

Hi Noel, I have exactly same behaviour which you predicted :) I am using external monitor and probably windows assume a screen size change on primary monitor while connecting or disconnecting external monitor. Now when this happens all my desktop icons are shuffled in a strange way. Do we have resolution of this problem or it's still unattended ?
July 5th, 2011 9:24pm

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