Windows 10: Desktop Icons gone haywire

When I turned on my Windows 10 laptop the other morning, my desktop icons were spread out in 4 rows, with many of them missing. I have not installed or uninstalled anything on this computer for many weeks. I do a complete full shutdown nightly Fast Startup is turned off. The last Windows Update and system restore point was June 10th. There was also a Dell update, but that was several days ago. I ran Malwarebytes and a virus scan boot-time and full; no malware or viruses were found. This is what the desktop now looked like:





Previously, I had my icons arranged in three columns on the left and one row on top. A utility I’ve used in the past to save and restore the desktop layout failed to restore it. If I move an icon myself, Windows immediately moved it elsewhere. I checked my View settings to see if somehow Autoarrange had been turned on, but it was not. Align to Grid was turned on, so I turned it off to see if I could then restore my desktop arrangement. My desktop restore program partially restored the first two columns, but bunched icons together and on top of each other:





When I try to move an icon to another location, it sometimes stays, but other times bounces right back to where it came from. And if I turn Align to Grid back on, the icons again are rearranged into four rows.


I first asked for help on another forum and I was told to erase and rebuild my icon cache. I did that and I don’t know if it helped. I still can’t restore my original desktop, but I’ve been able to rearrange them in a somewhat similar manner. But I can’t get icons as close to the left or bottom edges of the screen as before. When I try to, Windows rockets it to some random it seems location in the middle of the desktop. And clearly, Windows is not handling the icons the way it should. When I set the view to Align to Grid, or to Auto Arrange, Windows is spreading my icons out in rows across the screen, as in my original screenshot. This is not what is supposed to happen. Auto Arrange is supposed to align the icons in columns, beginning on the left edge of the desktop I found a YouTube demo that verified this. I’m also pretty sure that Align Icons to Grid should align the icons in the columns that I’ve already created, not spread them across the screen in an entirely different row arrangement. My web searches have not turned up any evidence of a known issue like this in Windows 10. Do I have to just chalk this up to another inexplicable Windows anomaly, or is there some way to repair this?

:)

 

Remove Linux Desktop Icons

I am not sure whether this will work (Ubuntu does not have icons like that on the desktop by default), but I suggest opening the trash bin and sweeping the icons into the window showing the trash bin.

 

Desktop Icons Won't Stay Put

Hi Laurie,

As per the issue description I understand that you are facing issues with desktop icons.

I suggest you try the following step in order to arrange the icons.

• Right click on the desktop.
• Click on view
• Check the option auto arrange icons.

Let us know if this helps.

Thanks.

 

Desktop Icons

Hello Glenda,

Share this information to assist you better.

• Is the issue particular to the Comcast?
• Have you installed all the pending updates?
• Did you try changing icons of other shortcuts?

Follow the steps and check if it helps:

Step 1: Press Windows+I to open Settings panel, and click
Personalization to access Personalization settings.

Step 2: Tap Change desktop icons on the top left in the Personalization window.

Step 3: In the Desktop Icon Settings window, select the icon of
This PC and click Change Icon.

Step 4: Choose a new icon from the list, and tap OK.

Step 5: Click OK to confirm the change.

Let us know the status of the issue.