Desktop Rearrangement...

[SP Goodman]

Back in the old Win98se days Active Desktop was something best turned off,
as it caused in worst cases lockups, and at best you got
repeatedly-reshuffled icons and quite bored with seeing the "Rebuild my
Active Desktop" desktop.

So here we are again. I prefer my main icons like My Computer and the
Recycle Bin on the right edge of the screen. Just about every time I get up
to desktop from a boot, My Computer, My Documents, the Recycle Bin and a
shortcut to My Music I made - renamed "Musik", keep getting shuffled over to
the left side of the screen, and never the same spot.

Possible additional symptoms of something gone wrong with Active Desktop is
a slowness of folder/shortcut opening from the desktop, as well as an
ongoing cause to refresh all icons on the desktop when just viewing a
folder.

I've replaced my AGP graphics adapter with a Radeon 9550, and even after
full removal of drivers and remnants, rebuilding with current drivers,
removing and checking with older drivers, changing resolution and color
depth, switching to a BMP image for background, changing to NO background,
slowing down the acceleration, and even going back to the old AGP card (ATI
All-in-Wonder 128 Pro) temporarily, there's no change in this annoying set
of problems.

Smells like the as-yet-unfixed Logoff-to-fix-taskbar-oddness but I'm keeping
an open mind on this. When I first chose a JPG file for a background, I was
prompted to turn on Active Desktop, but have found noplace to disable it.
Suggestions are more than welcome as usual.

Thx.

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

 

[Al Romanosky]

Regarding icon location - have you checked the following: Right click
desktop>Arrange icon by and verified "Auto arrange" and Align to grid" are
unchecked? Also previous version of "Active desktop" not available in XP.

 

[GTS]

Yes - active desktop was an absolute disaster in 98. (That mess has an
interesting history and was a direct result of illegal anti-competitive
activities by MS - clearly proven by internal MS documents exposed in the
antitrust trial..)

In any case, I suggest trying to change your desktop background back to one
of the standard bmps. Active Desktop in XP is automatically enabled by
certain events. Although this article is on a different issue it gives some
insight into that
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305117

 

[SP Goodman]

Yes - active desktop was an absolute disaster in 98. (That mess has an
interesting history and was a direct result of illegal anti-competitive
activities by MS - clearly proven by internal MS documents exposed in the
antitrust trial..)

In any case, I suggest trying to change your desktop background back to
one of the standard bmps. Active Desktop in XP is automatically enabled
by certain events. Although this article is on a different issue it gives
some insight into that
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305117

Thanks.

I tried the change to standard bmp, no change. Also I've been unable to
find how to disable Active Desktop, even through
disinstallation/cleaning/reinstallation of drivers and a new graphics card -
no change in its misbehavior. Don't think logoff-on will help that one...

 

[GTS]

I'm not certain that your problem is being caused by Active Desktop but if
so this should resolve it -
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm See Item 16 Active Desktop -
Enable or Disable.

Please let us know the result.

 

[SP Goodman]

I'm not certain that your problem is being caused by Active Desktop but if
so this should resolve it -
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm See Item 16 Active
Desktop - Enable or Disable.

Please let us know the result.

The Enable-Disable didn't have a consistent result, for some reason.
Sometimes the opening of a window would cause a complete refresh of the
desktop, sometimes it didn't.

When I disabled the "Auto align to grid" - "auto arrange" was already off! -
the reshuffling stopped.

Thanks Al Romanovsky!

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

 

[GTS]

The Enable-Disable didn't have a consistent result, for some reason.
Sometimes the opening of a window would cause a complete refresh of the
desktop, sometimes it didn't.

When I disabled the "Auto align to grid" - "auto arrange" was already
off! - the reshuffling stopped.

Thanks Al Romanovsky!

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

You're welcome. Thanks for the update.