how to lock position of desktop icons?

[Dunstan879]

hello

sometimes the position of desktop icons is altered, especially after crash-and-restart (can't remember other situations, but it seems to happen commonly)

this can be annoying, since the topography of my desktop icons is essential, because I place specific icons in specific order and position in the desktop to organize them, to remind me tasks to do, etc

is there any technique to fasten the desktop icons to their positions?

a winxp trick or a desktop replacement? (although I would prefer the first way)

thanks

[vinifera]

answer would be to search for Layout.dll

some info:

http://discuss.pcmag.com/forums/thread/1004387562.aspx

http://www.nthelp.com/50/save_desktop_layout.htm

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/save-and-restore-desktop-icon-layout-in-windows-vista/

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip20.htm#LDI

[dencorso]

layout.dll is not reliable.

Use midiox desktop restore, instead.

Works great!

[Phenomic]

yeah it's annoying when your desktop gets scrambled. I think registry holds layout:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop\ViewView2

You could copy the key manually or write a script to save/restore

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

layout.dll is not reliable.

Why isn't it? I use it all the time.

The thing is, everytime a new icon is added to the desktop you suppose to save the layout again.

Well it works for me.

[dencorso]

I don't know why. In many situations, my main system being a case-in-point, layout.dll fails to perform a correct layout restore, after it gets messed up. But I've never found one single system where midiox's files don't work, up to now. I've never investigated in full this problem, but the author of the midiox desktop restore (Jamie O'Connell) published some notes about it on his site, for which I gave a link above. There is also a forum dedicated to it, there. And it's freeware!

[MDGx]

hey, you two 98ers, get back to where you belong, this is not your turf... {lol}

stop invading other nice people's forums, the 98 cancer must be stopped... *not*. ;=)

[Multibooter]

Here's the 3rd 98er : SaveLayout http://www.12ghosts.com/ shareware, can do the trick just fine. v9.70 works fine under WinXP. v7.10b is apparently the last version for Win98. I have used SaveLayout for the past 7 years to back up the desktop (100+ icons). Making a desktop backup is part of my regular backups.

SaveLayout can be installed as a single applet of the whole package 12Ghosts. I didn't use the other ghost applets (except for Replace, for making global changes in a website), under Win98, years ago, they tended to make the system unstable. To create a desktop backup file (4kB!), I am using the program interface, then I rename a copy of the created backup (e.g. SLAutoSave1005.sl) with a descriptive name. To restore a specific desktop arrangement, I don't use the program interface, but right-click on the specific .sl file and select "Restore Layout". I only run SaveLayout on demand, not from the system tray.

SaveLayout is a little jewel.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Multibooter