Windows 7: Desktop Icons Moving

Hello, this is my first post here so I apologize if it's in the wrong format or location.

I've been having an issue lately with my desktop icons randomly moving around. They don't rearrange themselves, per se, but some icons just plain move, leaving gaps where they use to be. I have auto arrange off and I found a similar thread with suggestions that I have tried, but not many things fix this. The only temporary solution that I can find is to turn off Align Icons to Grid, but is there a more permanent fix for this?

The only other solution that I have ever found is to update my video card driver (GeForce 9500 GT) but the updated driver causes my video card to overheat, so I've rolled that back.

I'm quite lost as to what to do, thank you for any replies

Unfortunately, this is a very common problem in Windows. It is happening to me frequently now too, and I have no idea why.

It happened in earlier versions of Windows as well (certainly in XP), I am sure that Microsoft must be aware of it, but I don't know why they have not fixed it by now, something that seems like it would probably be a small problem to fix, but is very annoying.

There are workarounds though. There are a few small freeware utilities available, with which one can take a snapshot of where the icons are on your desktop (remembering where each icon goes), and then can restore them to those positions. Some names for those utilities are Desktop Restore, Desktop Icon Restorer, and Desktop OK. I believe I have also heard of one called Iconoid.

But it is a real shame that Microsoft has not fixed that annoying problem yet!

I have my desktop icons set to Auto Arange and align to Grid and they don't move. Do your move affter a reboot or when?
the best nVIDIA driver has been shown to be the 270.xx, not the newer 275.xx. try that if you haven't.

I forgot to add that they don't move on reboot. However, when I play a game, if I Alt+Tab or end the game, I find that some icons have moved around. Usually it's only one or two, but I tried Alt+Tabbing in and out of a game repeatedly earlier and the icons just went crazy.

Thanks for the input maiki. I've heard of and seen the desktop snapshot programs, but I just wanted to know first if it's something wrong with my system rather than being a windows bug. You've eased my mind a little bit!

Thanks for the suggestion Britton30, I'll see which driver I had beforehand. I know that the last 2 drivers that I updated, the latest one and the one before that, both overheat my driver while using the windows driver rollback feature, it's running fine now.

Another thing to try is have a look at Black Viper's site for suggestions for services you can disable or modify safely. You may have several unneeded services runing.

When I was using a 32-bit machine, I used this tutorial :
Save and Restore Desktop Icon Layout in Windows Vista - How-To Geek
It worked. I had over 150 shortcuts/icons on my desktop at the time.
The tutorial works for 32-bit. Both Vista and Win 7. I vouch for that.

Scroll down near the end, there is a 64-bit install exe. I have not tried it myself. I can't vouch for it.

Well, just to confirm, it's a windows thing and probably not something foreign invading my system right?

Yes. It is NOT virus related.

That "desktop icons moving around" issue happens to a lot of people.
Nobody has a permenant fix for it. The closest one, in my knowledge, is the one I gave you.

The tutorial did serve its purpose in my previous Vista computer.

If you are adventurous enough, try the Installer for 64-bit Windows.

Yeha its a Windows Bug, Hello Fynl By the way.

If your Tabbing in and out of games you have to remember that some games have a different resolution/refresh and colour scale. So whilst your tabbing in and out your desktop is moving the icons to keep with the games display ratio and that is what causes your problem, especially if you have a Resolution size and your games are running on half that native size.

I have found the easiest way to Get around it is to enable the Auto-arrange option in the desktop and make sure that the resolution for the games are set to my native Screen Resolution.

See if that works.

Cheers

Well I've had resolution changes screw up my icons before, but that usually just moves my few bottom rows somewhere else, rather than moving single, random icons to other locations. I've done research into this and what most people seem to say is that it's a massive move on their part, with most of their icons shifting or re-arranging. I just have 2-3 pop out into random spots, leaving gaps.

But if it's a windows problem I'll just deal with it and try one of the workarounds.

Thanks for your help everybody!