Any Way To Lock Desktop Shortcuts In Position?

Any way to lock desktop shortcuts in position on the desktop? Some will stay wherever I put them indefinitely, but others will migrate towards the upper left-hand corner of the screen; some will do this sometime after I first put them on the desktop, and some will do it just about immediately.

 

Right-click the Desktop and you'll see this.



Ensure that's unchecked.

 

It was already unchecked. Almost all of my desktop shortcuts stay where I put them, but for some reason, a few refuse to do so.

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/desktopok.html

 

This seems to be a problem in Windows 7, but strangely not for everyone.
Are you using an external monitor?

Also, after moving the shortcuts, right-click the Desktop and click Refresh.

 

This looks like just what the doctor ordered. Does anybody have any experience with this? I'm just a little leery that if it treats what a think is just a SYMPTOM of whatever the problem ACTUALLY is, that possibly this could cause some kind of problem.

If by "everyone", you mean all the shortcuts, yeah, it's weird all right.

Anyway, call me crazy, but I've never heard of an "external" monitor. Online I can find the answer to just about every question about monitors, even "What is a monitor?", but I CAN'T find the answer to "What is an EXTERNAL monitor?"

I'll tell you want I know though - I inherited this machine, and it's one of those jobs that has THREE monitors that together act like one continuous monitor spanning the space in front of you, where windows and the cursor don't notice that the three physical monitors aren't all one continuum.

Does this do a "system refresh", or this some kind of "screen refresh"?

 

I mean not all Windows 7 PCs.

This realy refers to laptops - you can plugin a second monitor. Because it's not part of the laptop, it's called an external monitor.

And here's your problem.
Unfortunately you're not going to find a 'Windows fix'.
You'll have to try a third-party program like the one suggested by foogoo.

Desktop Refresh.

 

Works great. I made a shortcut, stuck it in the taskbar, ran the program, switched the user interface language from German to English, saved my desktop layout, mixed up my desktop shortcuts, and put them right back in order by clicking on the saved desktop layout I had just made. Thanks.

Thanks for figuring out the cause of the problem.

From what I see online, a Desktop Refresh simply redraws the icons on the desktop. The pundits say you would only need to do this when you make changes to the desktop icons but then the changes didn't get reflected immediatey in the Desktop folder.

But I will try a Desktop Refresh the next time the icons go roaming, and then if that doesn't move all the icons back to exactly where I want them, I'll use DesktopOK then.

 

Do a Desktop Refresh after arranging the icons. It's worth a shot.

 

I DID do a Desktop Refresh after arranging the icons, so that should save the desktop layout I want, but then how do I RETRIEVE a saved desktop layout?

 

Download DesktopOK, it requires no installation. Create a DesktopOK folder and unzip the files to it. Launch DesktopOK and press Save.

 

Yes, I did that, it works great. Thanks a lot.

 

In Windows 7 there's no option to do that.
But, I see _nullptr and foogoo saved the day.

 

The latest development:

Shortcuts to Backup and Restore, Device Manager, Folder Options, Fonts, Network and Sharing Center and System disappeared from the desktop (although nothing else was affected, to my surprise). Of course, that doesn't really matter, since they're all accessible via Control Panel, which itself is still on the desktop. Also, a screenshot I had vanished from the desktop too.

But get this: Screen Refresh didn't work, so I used DesktopOK, and IT DIDN'T WORK EITHER!, except that it DID recover the screenshot. And I am dead certain those shortcuts HAD been there because that's what the screenshot was of.

I'm sure Eldon hit the nail on the head when he suggested in my thread "Why Did F3 Suddenly Stop Working In Notepad?" that I repair Windows 7.

Speaking of which, here's another bit of information indicating that that's the right call: regardless of application, Ctrl+(arrow) is only working intermittently to move the cursor a whole word (instead of just moving it one character, as if I wasn't holding Ctrl down).

So I'll just take this conversation over to that thread.

 

I solved the "wondering desktop icons" with the free version of FENCES. It groups your icons in custom arrangements and they remain "fenced" until you move them.

Link to "Fences": http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

You will get occasional nags to upgrade but they are completely benign. I've been using Fences for about 2 years problem-free. I'm running Windows 7/64.

 

Thanks Don, I'll check that out after I take care of some more pressing matters, but as Eldon pointed out above, this might not be 100% fixable because I've got 3 monitors. But I'll certainly try.

 

DesktopOK is working well for me, but I can't find any way to reorder the list of icon layouts that I've created. Does anyone know if this can be done (without recreating the list)?