Several Windows users at some point or the other have experienced the problem of their Desktop icons rearranging or moving after reboot. If your Desktop icons keep jumping, bouncing, moving or rearranging after rebooting on Windows 11/10 PC, here are a few things you can try to fix the problem where your desktop icon positions are not being saved.
Desktop icons keep rearranging or moving
Please go through the list and decide the order you may want to try these suggestions.
1] Make sure Auto arrange icons is unchecked
Right-click on the desktop, select View. Make sure Auto arrange icons is unchecked. Also, uncheck Align icons to grid.
In Windows 11 you need to right-click > Show more options > View.
2] Delete Icon cache
Open File Explorer and navigate to the following folder. Remember to replace ACK with your username.
C:\Users\ACK\AppData\Local
Copy-paste the address in the address bar and hit Enter. In the Local folder, you will see a “Hidden” IconCache.db file. Delete it. This applies to Windows8/7 users.
Now arrange your icons on your desktop and restart your computer and see if it has helped.
The procedure is different in Windows 11/10 – but you can use our freeware Icon Cache Rebuilder to do it easily.
3] Ensure that the Graphics driver is updated
Make sure that you have updated your video or graphics drivers to the latest available version from the manufacturer’s website.
4] Change Screen Resolution
Change your Screen Resolution and see if it helps. Right-click on the desktop and select Display resolution. The System Settings window will pop up.
Here check if you have set the Resolution to the Recommended figure.
Also check if Change the size of text, app, and other items to set to the Recommended figure. If it shows 125%, set it to 100% and see if that helps.
Fix: White Blank Icons on Windows Desktop.
5] Check Desktop Icon Settings settings
Prevent themes from changing icons. To do this, from the Control Panel, open Desktop Icon Settings box. Uncheck Allow themes to change desktop icons, click Apply and exit.
Does this help?
6] Change Icon Spacing
Change Windows Metrics – Icon Spacing and see. You will have to edit the Registry for this.
7] Troubleshoot in Clean Boot State
If nothing helps, check if it happens in Clean Boot State and troubleshoot the issue by trial and error method.
8] Use DesktopOK
You have one other option. Use freeware to lock your icon positions. DesktopOK lets you save, restore, lock desktop icons position, and layout. It can record icon positions and some other desktop arrangements. D-Color is another tool you can use to save the current icon layout, restore earlier icon layout, and more.
9] Use Icon Shepherd
Here’s how you can Restore the desktop icon layout to the original position using Icon Shepherd.
Let us know what, if anything here, helped you – or if something else you did worked for you.
Related read: Desktop Icons not working in Windows 11/10.
TIP: There are several interesting things you can do with your desktop icons. You can resize icons on desktop, display the desktop icons text on the side and quickly hide or unhide them.
If you want to save your desktop icon positions and you use different screens and sizes go to the microsoft store and search for emotum icon manager it is only $2 and it works great. I saved every size in the building as they are all different projector brands and sizes. I used a different name for each one.
nice!!
it doenst work , pathetic IDIOT
The fact that this is even a problem…. Wtf is up with Windows 10. This was never an issue for me in previous versions. This seems to be a recurring thing.
This is what I did, go tot the windows store and get the Emotum icon manager. It really dows work and it is only 2 buck. Really worth it. The latest version of windows 1709 really messes with my desktop all the tim. The program justs move everything back where it was.
These are good workarounds but still no real solution.
This mostly happens on extended display and Windows needs to display the icons on the active monitor.
I had to go the hardware route to solve this completely.
Look up: “monitor detect killer”.
Its a cheap and cleaver hardware solution.
Now
turning the monitors on and off causes no change at all on the windows
and icons configuration and it also works when waking up from sleep
mode.
Good luck.
I have multiple monitors that are not always all “ON”.
I use “DesktopOK”. Check the right options and Voilà!
Quite an easy fix.
These are good tips. Usually after a windows update, I use Winaero Tweaker. It gets my fonts back to a readable size, which regular Settings refuses to do anymore.
Thanks for this hint. I think this may have been my problem that has been very hard to troubleshoot! Bless you!
If you frequently save stuff to your desktop, rather than positioning your non-public desktop icons in the display’s 2nd column (as I mentioned above), you might want to keep the 2nd column empty, too, and place your stable icons starting in the 3rd or 4th column. This allows freshly added icons on the left to mix harmlessly with public icons in the first few columns, while leaving your stable icons alone. Once you relocate your new icons to the right, spaced away from the public icons, they’ll stay put like all the other desktop icons on the right.