Comments on: Save and Restore Desktop Icon Layout in Windows Vista

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:55:44 +0000

The link to the zip file seems to be broken.

By: Todd Westin

Todd Westin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:23:45 +0000

For me, the issue is not the icons on my desktop, but rather the icons inside a folder ON the desktop. It’s full of powerpoint and .mp3 files from class. Can I make this software work for those files?

As you can imagine, the folder fills up pretty quickly daily. Vista likes to mess up my arrangement, which is infuriating. Solutions much appreciated!

By: Warren

Warren — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:53:59 +0000

This fix did not work for me. I run Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium and when I clicked “Restore Icon Position”, it completely rearranged my desktop! WTH???

By: margaret wyatt

margaret wyatt — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:21:17 +0000

why can i get my icons to stay on my background icon windows to stay put

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:29:08 +0000

Does anyone still have the 64bit installer as the link for that no longer works

By: pete

pete — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:49:13 +0000

Brian,

I hope you come back some day and read this message.

You, sir, after 43 years “in the IT industry” are jaded and bitter. Go away.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:27:56 +0000

Thanks for posting this information. It works almost perfectly for me. Much appreciated.

By: Michael Segall

Michael Segall — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:26:47 +0000

Hi!

Had used the tweak on Vista, and installed it just now on Windows 7 Release Candidate, 32bit. Works great. But be careful about using automatic registry cleaners afterwards. Layout might not like it.

Best, Mike in Paris, France

By: JeffO

JeffO — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:28:56 +0000

Corey, that looks good for 32-bit LAYOUT.DLL – you should get the same restore options on your desktop that you get when right-clicking on the system icons.
No reboot necessary.
Should work globally – for any user.

- Maybe something is missing? LAYOUT.DLL must be in C:\WINDOWS\System32\
- LAYOUT.DLL must be registered.

The following regedits should register LAYOUT.DLL, and stick the right-click context-menu on both the system icons and the Desktop…

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{19F500E0-9964-11cf-B63D-08002B317C03}]
@=”Desktop Icon Layout”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{19F500E0-9964-11cf-B63D-08002B317C03}\InProcServer32]
@=”Layout.dll”
“ThreadingModel”=”Apartment”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\IconLayout]
@=”{19F500E0-9964-11cf-B63D-08002B317C03}”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved]
“{19F500E0-9964-11cf-B63D-08002B317C03}”=”Desktop Icon Layout”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\IconLayout]
@=”{19F500E0-9964-11cf-B63D-08002B317C03}”

If this doesn’t work, then it’s a mystery.

By: Corey

Corey — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:15:23 +0000

PS Have Vista Ultimate if that makes any difference.