Windows behaving like Mrs Tone
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 186
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From: Midlands
Windows behaving like Mrs Tone
I have recently installed a second monitor on my desk PC (running W7). Since then every time I start it up I find that it has kindly rearranged all the icons on the desktop into neat, alphabetically sorted columns. I've done lots of Googling and got nowhere. The 'Auto arrange icons' and 'Align icons to grid' boxes are both unselected. Anyone seen this problem before - and fixed it?
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 366
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From: Earth
Try one of these...
Found several solutions on W3, but the best is No1 in the list. No2 worth a check, though.
1. I had this problem w/Windows 7-32Bit and found that if I right-clicked on desktop and then clicked "Refresh" the icons stayed in place after a reboot. You'll have to do that anytime you add/move icons to keep them 'locked' in place.
2. The problem was that one of the monitors was not being detected by Windows correctly and therefore reverting my display profile to a default configuration. Once I remedied the problem of Windows identifying my monitors the problem went away. It turns out that one of my monitors was set to a refresh rate of 59Hz instead of 60Hz. Once I made the change to 60Hz I retained all changes made to display properties and icon positions on a reboot. I would suggest that you look into the settings for your monitor(s) and verify that they are correct.
3. I have the same problem, I reboot window 7, all my icons are arrange to left side of the screen. I found, my problem, was I didn't install the video driver (Nivdia driver), I was using the default microsoft driver. that will keep arrange the icon to left, every time. Once, I got the video driver install, everything work just fine.
4. I unchecked all of the non-Microsoft services in msconfig and restarted. All the icons stayed put.
1. I had this problem w/Windows 7-32Bit and found that if I right-clicked on desktop and then clicked "Refresh" the icons stayed in place after a reboot. You'll have to do that anytime you add/move icons to keep them 'locked' in place.
2. The problem was that one of the monitors was not being detected by Windows correctly and therefore reverting my display profile to a default configuration. Once I remedied the problem of Windows identifying my monitors the problem went away. It turns out that one of my monitors was set to a refresh rate of 59Hz instead of 60Hz. Once I made the change to 60Hz I retained all changes made to display properties and icon positions on a reboot. I would suggest that you look into the settings for your monitor(s) and verify that they are correct.
3. I have the same problem, I reboot window 7, all my icons are arrange to left side of the screen. I found, my problem, was I didn't install the video driver (Nivdia driver), I was using the default microsoft driver. that will keep arrange the icon to left, every time. Once, I got the video driver install, everything work just fine.
4. I unchecked all of the non-Microsoft services in msconfig and restarted. All the icons stayed put.
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 755
Likes: 26
From: Dublin, Ireland. (No, I just live here.)
Which dual-monitor mode are you using? If it's the mode that shows the same thing on both screens, then the resolution of both screens will be set to match the lowest one. The cure for that is to set the "extended desktop" mode which doesn't try to make both look the same.
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 798
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From: The Land of Beer and Chocolate
I have recently installed a second monitor on my desk PC (running W7). Since then every time I start it up I find that it has kindly rearranged all the icons on the desktop into neat, alphabetically sorted columns. I've done lots of Googling and got nowhere. The 'Auto arrange icons' and 'Align icons to grid' boxes are both unselected. Anyone seen this problem before - and fixed it?
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 456
Likes: 0
From: East Ecosse
While we're on the same subject, my dual monitor sytem gave me a fright the other day. Used for video editing, one monitor suddenly lost crispness and colour changed - as if display incorrectly set. Tried adjusting monitor, checked display properties, nothing amiss but could not recover the match to the other one. Power off/on, no change (Xerox pro monitors). Bah, mon had obviously died -£££. Next day everything back to normal tho' - twin head graphics card (nvidia) obviously had a wobbler? 
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 186
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From: Midlands
Thanks for all the replies. The second monitor is a 10" Lilliput USB screen. The problem seems to be that if the PC is powered up with this connected the desktop icons get tidied. Plug it in after boot up and all is well - so this is the method I'm using.
