Is there any way that I can save the position of the icons, and then restore them? Mine keep getting screwed up and moving all over the place.
Posted 13 years ago
How-To Geek Forums / Windows Vista
[solved] save and restore desktop icon positions?
(16 posts)Right click on your desktop, click view, make sure that 'Auto Arrange' is unchecked.
Please report back if this solution worked for you.
PS-make sure your icons are sorted the way you'd like-by either Name, Size, Type, Date Modified.
Scott
Posted 13 years ago
I don't think that's his problem.
Whenever I upgrade the driver for my Intel Graphics controller, as part of the upgrade process it temporarily switches to a lower resolution and then back to my original resolution. In the process, the desktop icons are reorganized to the top and left of the screen.
Same thing happens if I boot Vista into safe mode and use my account instead of the administrator's account.
Really frustrating to reorganize a couple of dozen icons back to where you think they were. It should be trivial to save that part of the registry that tracks these icon postions and restores them on demand.
Bob
Posted 13 years ago
The same thing also happens if you play games that change the resolution... or if you are a laptop user that connects to an external display.
I have a solution for this... will look for it and post it shortly.
Posted 13 years ago
Here we go:
http://www.nthelp.com/50/save_desktop_layout.htm
Basically, you just drop the dll in the system32 directory, and then you can save/restore the desktop icons anytime you want.
You wouldn't believe the amount of times people ask about this... I think I might write an article about it.
Posted 13 years ago
Works great! But I find it's not intuitive to associate it with the context menu for My Computer, My Network and the Recycle Bin. If you want to save the desktop icon positions, you should right-click the desktop! So add this to the layout.reg file:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\IconLayout]
@="{19F500E0-9964-11cf-B63D-08002B317C03}"Suggested by:
http://www.merawindows.com/Forums/tabid/324/forumid/82/threadid/6661/scope/posts/Default.aspx
And please write the article. layout.dll is a very useful tool that's been around for years but pretty much forgotten.
Bob
Posted 13 years ago
Sweet! That solved my problem perfectly! You should really write an article about this.
Posted 13 years ago
An old thread, but the additional registry entry doesn't work for right-clicking my desktop. Using Vista Home Premium.
Posted 13 years ago
I think there is a much easier solution. I stuck all the desktop icons into a folder on the desktop. Then I installed "App Launcher" on my sidebar (from: Get more gadgets online), drag all the shortcuts from the folder on the desktop into there (App Launcher has to know the path). Now I can start any of those with one click plus I have only 2 Icons on my desktop: The Icon folder and the Recycle Bin.
Posted 13 years ago
I only have 1 icon on my desktop, and it,s invisible (it's not the Recycle bin)
Posted 13 years ago
Lighthouse, you are the neatest of us neatos. How did you hide the one you have left.
PS. I need that recycle bin as I told you the other day. Without it, I would have lost already have of my assets.
Posted 13 years ago
First, create an icon the same colour as your desktop
Second, Change your desktop icon for the one you've just made
Third, rename it ALT255
Fourth, if you've just totally deleted something in error, use Recuva
Posted 13 years ago
Thanks Lighthouse. And in ALT255 the "255" has to be numeric. Or not?
Posted 13 years ago
PS: My RECUVA is the wife. She is the only one allowed to empty the recycle bin.
Posted 13 years ago
Yes, hold down th Alt key and tap in "255" on the numeric keypad. The next one you want to hide, do the same but Alt 255 twice. etc etc
Posted 13 years ago
The 255 is numeric. See the article at https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/hide-desktop-icon-text-on-windows-vista/ for more on the tip.
Posted 13 years ago
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