how to stop rearranging desktop icons

Question

how to stop rearranging desktop icons

GDCofH 5

what do i need to do to make this stop rearranging my desktop? I have to group icons by the department they go to to keep things straight and when my computer decides to force restart itself randomly my icons get jumbled randomly. not sorted by name, size, application or anything just randomly thrown across the screen. I've disabled the auto arrange options, tried refreshing the icon cache, did nothing. run all the scans. I just want my icons to stay where I put them, like they always have in the past. what do i need to do? i can't spend this much of every day searching for icons or rearranging them back into the form i set them to. i can't even think of a single benefit of this randomly rearranging them. i think its tied to windows explorer because restarting that in task manager put everything back randomly without restarting the computer. the only option i haven't tried is a third party program that will put my icons back. I'll even accept reasoning for why this random rearrangement is a good feature not a bug people have been complaining about for a decade

0 comments

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Stefano Sirri 3,170 Independent Advisor

Hi ,

Thank you for reaching out!

My name is Stefano, Microsoft Q&A Independent Advisor and it’s my pleasure to assist you today.

What’s happening is that Windows periodically resets the desktop icon layout if:

Display or resolution changes (including brief resets during GPU/driver crashes or Windows Explorer restarts).
Windows Explorer restarts (like you mentioned — it re-draws the desktop grid).
Forced restarts or updates that reload the shell before saving your icon positions.
Multiple monitor setups (Windows “forgets” which screen coordinates belong to which monitor).

Try those steps in order to prevent Windows to rearrange your desktop icons after restarts:

Lock your desktop layout

Right-click the desktop → View
Make sure Auto arrange icons is unchecked
Make sure Align icons to grid is checked (this helps with consistent spacing)

Prevent resolution resets

Go to Settings > System > Display > Advanced display settings > Display adapter properties > Monitor tab,

and set a fixed refresh rate and resolution.

Note: Some GPU drivers (especially Intel and NVIDIA) briefly toggle display modes during restarts, which makes Windows think the desktop “moved.”

If you use multiple monitors, set one as “Main display” and connect them in a consistent order — Windows uses monitor IDs to remember icon coordinates.

Disable “Fast Startup”

Fast Startup can cause shell state not to be saved properly.

Open Control Panel → Power Options → Choose what the power buttons do → Change settings that are currently unavailable
Uncheck Turn on fast startup (recommended)
Reboot

Keep me posted

Brian H 5 Reputation points

2026-02-26T19:42:47.12+00:00

I have the same problem and it is more than annoying. Looking for the setting as described and is not showing.
Linda Batenburg 0 Reputation points

2026-03-24T15:29:22.82+00:00

I have the same problem and its wildly annoying.. The options "Auto arrange"and "align icons to grid" are there, but they do nothing, i cant get them checked or unchecked and windows keeps rearranging my icons. I had to install third party software to find a work around.
William Mathews 0 Reputation points

2026-05-28T20:27:13.9833333+00:00

Might have been cool if they had put the recommended settings on by default instead of burying them 5 layers deep with a greyed-out select button, but okay, I guess.

Share via

how to stop rearranging desktop icons

1 answer

Your answer