Desktop icons play hide and go seek...

[HowardWoodard]

I like to keep a lot of my programs on my desktop and I group similar function programs together.

Occasionally my screen will blink, the icons will change to placeholders and then sequentially replace all of the placeholders with the correct icon. Sometimes -- not very often but even once is too much -- they will be in a completely different, and haphazard, order.

(1) Does anyone know what causes this to happen?

(2) Does anyone know of a way to save, and re-establish, the original order?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Jacee]

Hi Howard, have you thought about making a folder to group similar programs together? I find this much more effective than having a desktop full of icons.

 

[Slartybart]

If you right mouse click on your desktop, what are your settings in view and sort by.

Try unticking auto arrange in view, and unticking anything in sort by.

It sounds as though your graphics controller is under strain (the icons to placeholders thing).

Jacee's suggestion is a good one, it will certainly stop icons jumping around - plus it's a bit more organized.

Personally, I do that type of organization on the start menu. For ease of use, I pin my most used programs either to the taskbar (highest use) or the start menu. I only have my user, computer, recycle bin and one other icon on my desktop. But that's how I file things..... everyone has a different system.

 

[HowardWoodard]

Thanks both of you. There used to be a utility -- I don't think its been updated since XP, maybe Vista -- that would allow you to save and/or restore the desktop.

I'm interested in what is zapping it in the first place but if I can just restore it then that will lower the "zap interest" considerably.

 

[HowardWoodard]

I changed my google search a bit and came up with the following potential solution(s)...

Save desktop icons position and restore when needed in windows 7 - Microsoft Community

 

[Slartybart]

Restore it from what? Did you try unticking the auto arrange and sortby?

Please post an image of your desktop, that might help.
To try and figure out what might be causing the issue,
download Speccy,
launch it, and
post a link to a published Speccy snapshot

---

How to publish a Speccy snapshot:
Click on the Speccy file menu and select Publish Snapshot. This method removes sensitive information and provides you with a link to the report.

Copy the link returned from Publish Snapshot and paste it in a post on this thread so members have more information to better assist you.

Thanks

Speccy snapshot of my machine: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/CHlegp43qppad1Ua8dOLDAj

 

[HowardWoodard]

Yes, I unticked the auto arrange. No sort was selected.

I'll try the speccy tomorrow. That looks like what I was looking for in terms of getting to the bottom of this. I have a pretty powerful graphics card. Thanks.

As for "restore it from what", I rearranged everything and used the little desktop app (above) to store a copy of it that I can use if it gets jumbled again.

 

[Slartybart]

Yeah, I looked at your system specs and realized your machine isn't underpowered.

Speccy will only provide more information about your system (temperatures, services, ...) I can ask more intelligent questions (or fewer questions) by reading the snapshot.

Got it - you're using the layout.dll extension.

I'd still like to see how populated the desktop is with icons. could you post a screen shot?

Thanks,

Bill
.

 

[HowardWoodard]

Here is the Speccy link: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/dfGSePnGATPu6GF0otNoFTV

Here is my desktop:

 

[Jacee]

I bet you could make about four folders and clear all of those icons off the desk top!

One for all photo rendering programs, one for all media players, one for all security ... etc!

 

[HowardWoodard]

Thanks Jaycee. You are absolutely right and that would be a good way of re-organizing it but I like it this [non-hierarchical] way. Maybe I'm just a jumbled up kind of person.

Hopefully I can figure out what causes it to get jumbled and fix that. Worst case, I now have a backup that can be used to restore the desktop after it does get changed.

Howard