Windows 10: Desktop Icons won't stay put...

Good day, everyone. I'm having a very unique issue, at least, to me, with my Windows 10 machine. I have Win 10 Pro and my desktop will flash for a split second and all my icons will have moved to wherever they wish to be. I spend more time re-organizing my desktop than I do actually using the computer all of a sudden.

I would love to give you some information about my computer, but the control panel won't open. I just spent three minutes waiting for that thing to open and all I did was stare at a solid blue window with a giant white gear in the middle. No control panel ever came up. *Sad

Oh well. Win 10, no new updates recently since the creator's update (which was utterly useless for me), AMD 8-core CPU, 16 GB of RAM. Let's see, AMD R9 200 series video card, the drivers are all up to date. I do that manually since Win 10 doesn't give me the correct drivers for my system, which is custom black box, I just can't remember what all I put in it. Sorry.

Anyway, hopefully someone can give me some help with this desktop issue. I tried on Microsoft's ask the community and no one ever responded to my plea for help. My desktop is also set to align to grid and show desktop icons. Why they would allow you to hide your desktop icons like that is beyond me. Anyway, the autoarrange is off so as far as I can tell, there is no reason for this issue to be happening, unless Win 10 is bugged yet again. *Sad

:)

 

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 Won't Stay Put

Nope, no help. All this did was move all the icons that I had on the right side to the left. It also arranges them in some machine-specified order, not the way I place them. It also did not address the issue of my application windows being resized
every time they are closed or minimized.

 

First off, it's been my belief that Microsoft has been striving for a "clean desktop", very few or no icons on it. Secondly, the desktop is Dynamic, not Static like a picture on the wall. It is constantly being refreshed/redrawn while Windows is running, a number of things can affect it such as programs that have loaded into RAM or that are running in the background.

 

So basically, there isn't a whole lot I can do about it except, maybe... Format the hard drive, make a daily back up and then as soon as I notice the icons moving around, remove the last installed program or go back to the backup from the day before...?

 

Have you used any graphical or interface customizations with Windows 10?

Have you added any new software recently, and how long has this issue been occurring for?

More importantly, what changes have you made till this started occurring if you can recall anything?

If we do System Restore, we lose the learning curve and process in figuring out the problem.

 

No to customizations. No new software recently and the issue has been occurring for since the Creators Update. And I can't recall any changes. It's a work computer in question and I'm the IT guy that can't figure out what is going on. LOL.

Alright. That's another issue we've been having. We upgraded the computer in question to Win 10 from Win 8.1 and the system restore was enabled, but when we go to do a system restore, 10 turns around and says that there are no restore points. *Sad

 

Will you please try this:

Code: sfc /scannow[/quote] Run As Administrator > cmd.exe

Let me know what SFC pipes output please.

This seems like 2 completely unrelated issues, and the system's components are nonfunctional.

Also, please check that the VSS is operational.

Go to services.msc and search for Volume Shadow Copy and see if it's disabled. Change it to manual if it is, and try creating a restore point via Control Panel > search, Create a restore point.

 

Volume Shadow Copy was not running on any of our computers. Personal Computerss included. So, I manually started it for now. I'll work on automating VSS shortly. It's going to be a little while before I can run sfc on the computer in question. Sorry for the delay. *Smile

 

My fault. I didn't explain that VSS needs to be set to manual, not actively running, and we should test for creation of system restore points and their ability to be used and restore the system successfully - which you explain you have issues with. Is the issue with successful restore points that work? Or creating them?

Also, this sounds like a problem with the IconCache.db for this specific machine which may need to be reset appropriately and I will provide instructions for this as soon as we attempt a system file checker scan.

I will be posted!

 

If you do need to rebuild your Icon Cache, read this tutorial *Smile You can also try rebuilding your thumbnail-cache

Rebuild Icon Cache in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

 

Thanks Mike for posting that. I will definitely search the tutorials section a little more, a vast amount of resources.

 

If you want a faster/easier solution, look into iconoid. Freeware and lightweight. Its how I fixed mine when I was using a larger monitor. If you set it to anything over 100% on zoom, they do that. If they are doing that on 100%, and you don't want to keep fighting it, just use that app.

 

I use a pay for app called DeskTop Toy, you can arrange your desk Icons then save the config and even save multiple configs. It gives you the choice to align to Top or Bottom or either side even.

 

I am curious as to how these apps will serve to correct the problem, or potentially add to it.