XP Desktop Icon locations

[Rick Heckbert]

Hi,
We have a bunch of public machines here in our library that are using
mandatory roaming profiles. We recently discontinued the use of an
application and so had to delete its icon from the desktop. This is ok but
of course it was the 3rd out of only 5 icons arranged vertically on the
desktop and its absence left a very asthetically unpleasing hole on the
desktop. I can change the position of the remaining icons but when we
reboot they revert back to their origianl locations. I'd really rather not
have to go to all the trouble of uploading a new roaming profile for these
machines as it seems every time we do we cause problems in other areas.
I have looked for the location of desktop icons on the interent and I think
I have it narrowed down to
HKCU_Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer . . .
After this it gets fuzzy. One post I saw said it was in the Streams key of
the above but that was for 98.

Also, I read it was the
HKCU_Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop
another place said the
HKCU_Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop
Does anyone know what key it saves the location in and if so how to decode
those locations?

Due to the fact that we are using roaming mandatory profiles and there are a
couple different profiles to update plus permission issues in updating the
profile plus I would have to wait till we weren't open so no one else would
mess everything up by logging off a puvlic machine while I was doing this .
.. . It would be a lot easier if I could jsut change it in the registry

Thanks!

 

[Malvern]

to fix the icon re-arranging at boot-up, all you need to do is right-click a
blank area of Desktop, then select "Arrange Icons by>Auto Arrange to stop
this happening. I must confess that some of the information you gave is way
out of my area of limited expertise so I don't know if this simple fix will
create other issues.

Malv

 

[Kelly]

Hi Rick,

Suggestions:

Right click the Desktop/Icons/Sort by Name

To remove: Go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

 

[Alec S.]

WHAT!? No, don't delete ...\NameSpace. That's where any specialized
icons are located. They are not shortcuts, but special desktop icons like
the Recycle Bin, My Documents, etc.


--
Alec S.
alec <@> synetech <.> cjb <.> net




 

[Kelly]

I DID NOT say delete the key, other entries are there as well.

 

[Rick Heckbert]

Thanks all for your answers but I must have not been clear.
We have a public desktop with 5 icons (large size) on it arranged vertically
that run different library apps and go to different parts of our web
catalog. Next to each icon is a text description that is part of the
background bmp. One of the apps is no longer used so I could easily delete
the icon from the madatory roaming profile. But, unfortunately it was the
3rd icon leaving a gap between the top two and the bottom two. I was able
to edit the bmp but asthetically the gap looks bad. I tried to move the
bottom two icons up but as soon as I rebooted they reverted to their
original location.
As Icon desktop location is a per user setting I would imagine this is in
HKCU, not HKLM.

I would like to just edit the server located copies of ntuser.man to change
the icon's physical desktop location rather than go to all the trouble of
having to change the roaming profile and then upload it to the server as
this would invilve permission changes, login script changes to point to a
..dat vs a .man, etc. Not to mention that most times we start messing with
roaming profiles (once we get them working) something messes up. I know it
is supposed to be straightforward but it never is!

I am not interested in changing the autoarrange functions or settings or
lining up icons but rather changing the geographical location of the
existing icons
Thanks!