Unwanted rearrangement of icons

[Regina]

I have a picture on my desktop, and I have my icons
arranged by category in and around this picture, in a
pattern which makes logical sense to me.

Every once in a while,when I've donwloaded a new program,
or when I've run some spyware search, or just turned the
computer off and on again, all of the icons which I have
arranged near the taskbar have suddenly jumped over to
the left side, in alphabetical columns, and I have to put
then back where I want them to be. (This does not affect
icons which are place *within* the picture, only those in
the margin above the task bar.)

Is there some way of "locking" the location of icons on
my desktop so that this stops happening?

Tx. (XP5.1, Home Edition, 2002)

 

[Rich Barry]

Regina, you could try rt clicking on the Desktop>select
Prop>Desktop>Customize Desktop>Web>Check
Lock Desktop Items.

 

[Regina]

-----Original Message-----
Regina, you could try rt clicking on the Desktop>select
Prop>Desktop>Customize Desktop>Web>

Check >Lock Desktop Items.

Thanks. When I got there, "lock desktop items" was
already checked. *However*... the preceding menu had "Run
Desktop Cleanup Wizard" (every 60 days) checked. So, I
unchecked that, as I routinely get rid of unwanted icons
from my desktop without a "wizard" application doing it
for me.

Now I'll just have to wait and see if my icons stay put
or not. If they move again without reason or notice,
I'll be back.

 

[Lynne]

I got tired of dealing with the same problem and have been using Restore
Desktop - it's a free program that you use to save your desktop and to
restore it to that arrangement should things rearrange themselves. You can
download it here http://www.softwarium.com/ I've used it on both of my
computers (Win98SE and XP Home) for almost a year now with no problems and,
it works like a charm.

Lynne