Windows 10: Windows 10 desktop 'stop' icon and cannot move icons

Hello all, I'm glad there is a community here that deals with Windows 10 and may be able to offer insight into my multiple issues that I am having, of which the first was this can't move icons issue.

I do apologize for the multiple issues below but I just wanted to give ample info on what I am experiencing.

Ok to start, I upgraded from Win 7 Pro to Win 10. All seemed fine.

Installed the trial version of Stardock Start 10, again all things seemed fine and worked properly.

Then about two weeks ago, I noticed I could not move any of my desktop icons to reposition them on the desktop, I would get a grayed out 'stop' icon when I left clicked on the icon to move it.

Align icons to grid is ticked but not the auto arrange. I tried having both unchecked and still had the 'can't move icons issue'.

I have Tweaking.com installed on my machine for fixing a problem I had in Win 7 and decided to use it with Win 10.

Tweaking recommends you restart in SafeMode, which I do, (icons could be moved in SafeMode by the way) and then it does its thing and when finished I then restart the PC back into normal mode from safe mode (side note, it has gotten stuck in safe mode where you cannot restart in normal mode. Even after going into MSCONFIG and clicking Normal mode it would still restart in Safe mode. Don't know what that is about and after running tweaking again it would finally restart normally).

The problem would seem to be fixed, up until I shut down the system, then when it reboots, I again can't move any icons, and I get the gray 'stop' circle.

I have tried multiple malware/anti virus scans and have not been able to find anything (at least while the PC is running, maybe I need to try using a boot CD and scan then).

Any ideas on what may be causing this?

Side note, I have noticed that when using Stardock Start 10 to emulate the Windows 7 interface, when you search in programs and files, when you go to select any Windows program (ie create a restore point) it gives you an error message (I'm at work so I don't remember it exactly) like you don't have rights to run the program or a different message of it cannot find the path to the program.

When I first installed Stardock that did not happen and I could open up anything with out issue.

I will try and post screen shots of the 'stop' icon and the error messages when I get home.

Again, any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

:)

 

desktop icons keep moving

how to stop all desktop icons from periodically aligning to left of desktop?

I have tried these actions but icons keep moving every week or so.

1. Personalize > Themes > desktop icon settings> Uncheck "allow themes to change desktop icons".

2. Make icons smaller: hold down ctrl key and use mouse scroll wheel to make icons smaller.

3. view > auto arrange and align icons to grid are unchecked.

Using Windows 10, version 1709, Oct 22, 2017. This issue happened before current version of Windows 10 installed as well.

As always thank YOU for your assistance!

[Moved from: Windows / Windows 10 / Windows settings]

 

desktop unmanageable, cannot arrange icons

my desktop is frozen, cannot move or arrange icons. Icons are responsive, just cannot be moved where I want. What?

 

Hello there! i4dat Welcome to the Ten Forums!

I trust you are still running the upgrade and haven't since performed a clean install of Windows 10. And this is the most likely reason you are seeing all this. With some upgrades from 7 things seem to go quite well at first while others see immediate headaches! Try not seeing any Start button or a blank Settings screens if not being kept out of the Start>Apps! Or you can't get anything important like your antivirus program to install even with the 2016 beta version!

"Buggy buggy buggy" is how fast the upgrade install will deteriorate! when something that should have gone on didn't quite fully make the trip during the initial upgrade! You have two options to pick from now! The first is to repair the present upgrade to 10 install while the second is simply plan a full clean install of 10 to clean up the mess!

The problem seen all too often with upgrades is they tend to bring n the clutter left behind by the previous version's system registry which then causes errors to be seen in the newer version's own registry. Eventually you are forced into seeing a clean install anyways when the first upgrade simply becomes too "buggy" to work with! Unfortunately this is now where you are at!

 

Hey Night Hawk, thanks for the reply.... It is much appreciated.

I would be lying if the news has not made me utter a very sarcastic 'Great'!

First, how would I go about trying to repair the upgrade. I have a bunch of programs that I would like to not have to have the headache of reinstalling.

Second if I have to go the clean install route, how exactly does one do that since I upgraded from my 7 installation CD?

And since a clean install will remove all of the entries that tell windows that there is data on my E: Drive (the OS is on my Samsung Evo SSD) where most of these programs and data were stored, what do I have to do to make sure that Windows will find all of those files correctly?

 

Well when custom installing programs onto other then the C drive you can always expect a large headache if something goes wrong! There's never any complete disaster recovery plan when trying this with a brand new version before you even know how things will go! And I can imagine you might have a few more things to utter!

The ilnks for the most frequent guides people will turn to I added into my sig for ready reference since I know people will be needing to look them over! Ready to step upto the plate?!
Clean Install: Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums
For wanting to try the Upgrade to Repair type install: Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums[2]=Installation%20and%20Setup

And one more little goodie to keep in mind since no one for the time being except Neosmart will have Recovery disks on optical media 10 has it's own "Recovery Drive" option where you use either an 8gb(recommended) or larger 16gb usb flash drive to create a recovery stick in case 10 won't start up for some reason as well as getting at the recovery/repair options when the F8 option doesn' see them come up. Recovery Drive - Create in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

I carry one on a key chain in the event one is needed when not having the installation key with me like for a laptop I'm presently creating a full system image backup for. Takes forever when the image is going to a drive in a usb enclosure compared to how much faster it is when you have a second drive for that internally!

 

Gotcha, ok first order of business is to create that USB recovery stick, then I will try to repair this installation.....
If that doesn't work then I will have to look into backing up all my stuff and doing a clean install.
Or do you think I should revert back to Win7 and try to reinstall?

 

Did you try uninstalling Start10? I use it and like it but maybe it has a problem. See how things are without it. You can always reinstall it or switch to Classic Shell instead or just use the Start menu asis.

 

Wow, ok, now I'm at the point of being in a situation where I do not know the best course of action. I have created the recovery drive, so that's done.

Now I want to try to repair Win 10, but I am not 100% sure which method to use.

I'm currently downloading the ISO file for Windows 10 and I will burn it to a DVD.

At that point I guess I will have to do some reading and youtubing to see exactly how to go about doing the repair when using the ISO file. Unless you have some additional pointers....?

 

Hey Rich, I haven't removed Start 10 to test...

I may try that tomorrow and see what happens.

 

I never have much use those types of 3rd party apps since having a look at the 8 Developer and Customer Preview builds and simply calling it a day when the Start menu as well as other things were stripped out of Windows back in 2012. I tried out a number of things over the years but still primary have been working with the options found in each version itself.

With 10 however none of those are even necessary since I manage things from within the new version itself with the few exceptions of going for Windows Live Essentials 2012 to get the Windows Live Mail app installed and a few other things. I resize and reshape the Start menu to look a bit more like it had been with 7 then toy with 3rd party stuff as a rule. See for yourself.





First you have the "Metro" look still seen with oversized tiles and then you have...

 

Getting the error 'Modern Setup Host has stopped working'.

I've disabled all of my antivirus and anti malware and still getting this error. WTH?

 

Have you downloaded the Media Creation Tool and seen 10 media made up or are you simply using the initial upgrade now option if not through the Windows updates?

This seems to be an immediate upgrade option problem being reported at the MS social technet site quite a bit for 10. Setup crashes with error

With each instance people are being advised to disable their system protections as far as antivirus and firewall programs from 3rd party sources and using the media tool to see the media made up or save the "Windows.iso" file name download for the edition and architecture you are going with being either 32bit or 64bit.

Here I simply with the save iso to drive first along with subsequently trying out the two media creation options avoiding the immediate upgrade entirely. When finding out I had to unplug a pair of storage drives for the first main system here then 10 upgraded right over the temp 7 install I had put on for the planned dual boot. I had to see a second upgrade to repair the first until the clean install still running well went o a week later! Buggy! was the first upgrade there and on a laptop while surprisingly the second desktop went well.

The Modem Setup Host error however is apparently tied directly to the method of installation being used. Here I not only used the MC tool but have had the UltraISO utility program in use now since 7 came out! You can also see the Windows.iso file mounted on a virtual cd drive in Windows in order to run the setup.exe file from there. So there are alternatives to getting the 10 install going correctly for you.

 

Initially I used the upgrade button.

Now I have used the Windows 10 pro 64bit ISO and mounted it (I have also tired running it off of the DVD and transferring it to my secondary drive), ran setup and it hangs in the same place with that 'Modern Setup Host' error.

Maybe I need to uninstall my antivirus and anti-malware instead of disabling it?

At this point, do you think I should revert back to Win 7 and then trying to reinstall (Of course I don't if I can use the Win 10 ISO and install or even if I won't get the same error)?

What do you think?

 

Oh, side note, I was doing this from my logon that has Admin rights and not the Admin account itself.

Should I retry from the Admin logon?