Desktop Icons Auto-arrange after hard shutdown

[Guest]

When I have to manually power off my Windows XP SP2 system with the power
button, and after I reboot, some of my desktop shortcut icons that I moved to
another part of the desktop auto-arrange themselves on the left-side of the
desktop again. I manually moved them to different parts of my desktop, i.e.
shortcuts to Excel or Word documents. I do not have auto-arrange selected as
a desktop option either. I unchecked "Auto Arrange" and "Align to Grid" and
then after I do the hard shutdown, these options are checked again somehow.
I am logged into the system as a local admin. The system is part of a
company domain and it is a Dell Latitude D510 laptop.

When I shutdown the system normally from the Start menu, this problem does
not occur. It only occurs when my system locks up and I have to manually
hold the power button to shutdown the system. Has anyone else seen this
problem before or have any solutions?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Apparently when you shutdown in a non-approved manner Windows doesn't
remember your desktop layout. Windows also probably does not save some
other settings when it crashes.

If your machine is crashing there is nothing you can do about the desktop
layout except maybe use a third party program.

[[Icons - Lock on Desktop
"In Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP you can lock down the position of the
Desktop icons using a couple of files from the MS Windows NT 4.0 Resource
Kit.]]
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_i.htm

[[Microsoft's Layout.dll (free) file, which is included in the Windows NT
Resource Kit, can be installed on Windows 2000 and XP systems. This adds the
Save Desktop Icon Layout and Restore Desktop Icon Layout options to the
pop-up menus associated with system icons like the Recycle Bin and My
Computer. It's a bare-bones solution that lacks the useful frills found in
EzDesk, but it gets the job done.]]
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1593475,00.asp

zipped layout.dll direct download..
http://www.nthelp.com/proggy/layout.zip

[[Make Desktop Icons Stay in Place
1. Download the zip file that comes from the Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit.
Don't worry! It'll work with your Windows XP machine.
2. Copy the files in the .zip file onto the desktop. Then place Layout.dll
in your WINDOWS\System32 directory.
3. After the layout.dll is in the right directory, double click on the
layout.reg file.
4. Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. You should see two
new commands: Save Desktop Icon Layout and Restore Desktop Icon Layout.
Use them to save and restore your icon arrangement. ]]
http://www.wxpnews.com/index.cfm?id=52

This is Freeware.

Icon Restore
restore desktop icon layout

<quote>
Icon Restore allows you to save your desktop icon layout and restore it when
needed. If you have ever changed your desktop resolution temporarily, you
will have noticed that your desktop icons are all messed up, after you
switch back. This little tool allows you to right click on the My Computer
icon and select `Restore Desktop Icon Layout` and everything will be back in
order. Very useful for people that have to change the screen resolution
often.
<quote>
http://snapfiles.com/get/iconrestore.html

EzDesk Shareware - Manage your Desktop Icons
http://home.comcast.net/~ezwaretech/

They have a free evaluation copy. And if it does want you want, it might be
worth 15 bucks.

About EzDesk Version 1.8
http://home.comcast.net/~ezwaretech/ezdesk_about.html

If you find EzDesk useful and use it regularly please consider registering
it. The registration cost is $15.00 (U.S. funds: cash, check, or money
order). The registration form can be found inside the EzDesk package.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

When I shutdown the system normally from the Start menu, this problem does
not occur. It only occurs when my system locks up and I have to manually
hold the power button to shutdown the system. Has anyone else seen this
problem before or have any solutions?

This minor problem isn't worth the effort to troubleshoot.

Live with it.