Desktop icons won't stay put

Running Windows XP (HE) with SP2, everything updated. I have 49 icons on my Desktop and a few days ago they decided to scramble themselves. I prefer to have similar items (anti-malware, image editing, etc.) grouped together. The icons in the Control Panel window stay where they should, and I have a Games folder (Solitaire, Freecell, etc.) with 12 icons arranged in a customized arrangement, and they stay put. But after I've arranged the Desktop icons the way I want, I soon find they've rescrambled themselves again. There doesn't seem to be any system (such as alphabetical order) to them, but they wind up in the same "bad" arrangement each time.

The only recent system changes I've made are to replace ZoneAlarm with Comodo and to add AVG. A Norton AV scan last week and an AVG scan last night showed nothing out of order. Same with recent Ad-Aware and Spybot scans. Any ideas what's causing this Desktop icons aggravation and how to fix it?

 

I used to have problems like that until I got Icon Saver.

It's free and does a great job. You don't really have to run the main program all the time. It has two executables that do all the work. Just unzip the download and place the dll it has into your windows\system32\ folder. The readme file explains all that.

Then double click the saveicons.exe file and it will store your icon positions. Then when they get scrambled, just double click the restoreicons.exe file and it'll put them back in order. Remember to run the saveicons.exe whenever you change things around or add/delete something so it will always be up to date.

I put shortcuts to those two executables onto my QuickLaunch toolbar so it's easy to access for updating or restoring.

 

Cool app dude!

Could this just be an iconcache problem? BOBBO, open your desktop properties to the Appearance tab and click Effects. Check (or uncheck) the box 'Use large Icons. OK your way out. Go back and reset it to previous setting and OK out. See if arrangement sticks. You could also try the Appearance tab>Advanced button, then use the Item dropdown menu to select Icon and note the size, change it, OK out. Then reset to previous settings.

 

noahdfear: Your first suggestion didn't work, but your second one did! At least it's working so far. Haven't rebooted yet, but the icons are staying put through everything I have done, and that wasn't true earlier today. So until I find out otherwise, I'll regard the problem as licked. Thanks for the help.

surferdude2: That program sounds promising. If my Desktop icons problem returns, I'll get it. Thanks for the tip.

 

Cooler app, dude!

Here's a neat solution. Just right click on My Computer to restore the layout.
http://users.rcn.com/taylotr/icon_restore.html

 

Glad to hear it worked, BOBBO.

Thanks weccpas ........... cool tool (too cool, too )

 

Update: The Desktop icon news is not good. The suggestion noahdfear offered that I thought was working didn't hold up. So I downloaded and installed the Icon Restore program weccpas recommended. It seemed to work better, but it doesn't seem to be bulletproof. Every time I reboot, the arrangement goes bad. When I do the Restore Desktop Icon Layout routine, about half the icons return to where they should, but the other half don't. Today I discovered that opening the Recycle Bin or even just sending something to it causes a rescramble. Again the program gets only half the icons back to where they belong. So I'm going to uninstall that program and try the Icon Saver program surferdude2 mentioned. Stay tuned. * fingers crossed *

 

FYI, every single Icon saver program I have ever used requires multiple runs to completely restore all icons. Keep running the restore function and it'll finally get them all.

You obviously have some problem causing this scrambling and you will need to get to the root cause for complete relief.

I suggest that you search your drive for iconcache.db files and delete all those that you find. Then reboot and they will be recreated. That will eliminate any possible corruption in the iconcache.db files.

Then you should raise the number of icons that can be cached. If you need help doing that, post back. There are several ways and free tools for the job.

 

Here's some info I had stacked away that will serve you:

Using Registry Editor, add the Max Cached Icons string value with a value data of 2000 to the following registry key, and then restart your computer:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
If the icons are still incorrect, delete the ShellIconCache file. The Max Cached Icons value data range is between 100 and 4096. The default value is 500.

If you prefer an automated version with a multiple choice menu, go here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/IconCache.reg

Double click that file and allow the import to the registry. That will not only increase the Icon Cache size, it will add a menu to your MY COMPUTER (or Explorer) > TOOLS > FOLDER OPTIONS > VIEW > scroll down to the bottom of that list.. that allows you to resize the Cache as you prefer.

Edit, that info is dated so the shelliconcache file referred to is now called the iconcache.db file.

 

surferdude2: So far so good. I deleted all the iconcache.db files, and I downloaded and installed Icon Saver, rearranged the Desktop icons and ran one Save Icons.

When I clicked on your link to the automated Registry tool, I got a text window titled "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.0" Are those are the multiple choices you mentioned? How do I get one of them into the Registry? BTW, after I've drilled down in my Registry to .../Explorer, the Advanced section doesn't show any IconCache file or even a ShellIconCache file. I'm kind of stuck. How do I proceed?

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. But recent scans, including a Trend Micro HouseCall scan just this afternoon, showed no bad guys. If problems continue, I may have to do a HJT log post.

 

BOBBO, that download is a REG file named ICONCACHE.REG. You should download it to your Desktop. Then double click it and you'll get a message asking if you want to add the data to your Registry. Affirm the action and the job will complete.

To verify that it worked correctly, open "My Computer" or Windows Explorer and click > Tools > Folder Options > View > and scroll the list to the bottom. There you should find the multiple choices for setting the iconcache file size. I have mine set at 8192 forever.

 

surferdude2: I must have gotten out of the stupid side of bed this morning. When you say

are you referring to the link in your preceding post:

When I click on it (singly or double-click), this page of text opens:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\IconCache]
"Text "= "Icon Cache Size "
"Type "= "group "
"Bitmap "= "SHDOC401.DLL,6 "
"HelpID "= "update.hlp#51140 "

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Huge]
"RegPath "= "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer "
"Text "= "8192 Icons "
"Type "= "radio "
"CheckedValue "= "8192 "
"ValueName "= "Max Cached Icons "
"DefaultValue "= "2048 "
"HKeyRoot "=dword:80000002
"HelpID "= "update.hlp#51140 "

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Large]
"RegPath "= "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer "
"Text "= "4096 Icons "
"Type "= "radio "
"CheckedValue "= "4096 "
"ValueName "= "Max Cached Icons "
"DefaultValue "= "2048 "
"HKeyRoot "=dword:80000002
"HelpID "= "update.hlp#51140 "

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Medium]
"RegPath "= "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer "
"Text "= "2048 Icons "
"Type "= "radio "
"CheckedValue "= "2048 "
"ValueName "= "Max Cached Icons "
"DefaultValue "= "2048 "
"HKeyRoot "=dword:80000002
"HelpID "= "update.hlp#51140 "

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Small]
"RegPath "= "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer "
"Text "= "1024 Icons "
"Type "= "radio "
"CheckedValue "= "1024 "
"ValueName "= "Max Cached Icons "
"DefaultValue "= "2048 "
"HKeyRoot "=dword:80000002
"HelpID "= "update.hlp#51140 "

There doesn't seem to be any way to download it to my Desktop. And until I do that, there doesn't seem to be any way to do the rest. What am I doing wrong?

BTW, after I downloaded and installed the Windows updates this morning (I leave the computer on overnight), a reboot scrambled all the Desktop icons again. Clicking on Restore Icons did another half-baked job. Still in training, I guess.

 

Try right-clicking it and choosing "Save target As. "

You may be using some browser other than IE or else your security setting may need to be relaxed a tad to allow it to download.

The text you pasted is the correct script for the .reg file. You could actually paste that into a Notepad session and click "Save As" and name it iconcache.reg (or anyname.reg) and it would then work when double clicked as outlined earlier.

 

surferdude2:

Bingo! That was the secret. I use Netscape 7.1 as my default browser, and when I used IE 6 the rest of the operation went just fine. I set it up for 8192 Icons, so here's hoping the worst of the problem is behind me.

When I closed the My Computer window after making that choice, I was back to the Desktop and found the icons scrambled again. After having to rearrange them so many times, I'd decided to make a chart of sorts so I could remember just how I wanted them. Got them back where they belong, clicked Save Icons again, and hope the training stage won't take too long.

Thanks for all your help, surferdude2 and your patience.

 

That doesn't sound too promising.

Right-click on your open Desktop and verify that "Snap to Grid" is selected. If not, click it to give it a check mark.

Verify that "Auto Arrange" is NOT selected.

 

You may need to force Windows to reread the cached icons after you increase the cache size. To do this, right-click on the Desktop, choose Properties, and click on the Appearance tab. Then click on the "Effects" button. Then tag the box "Use Large icons." Click apply and then click OK. Then click the Effects button again and uncheck that box, click apply and OK. That will put it back to the original setting. Rearrange the Desktop since it will likely now be scrambled again. Then store the setting using the Icon saver Tool.

Hopefully, they will stay that way now. As I said before, sometimes you have to click the Restore Icons several times for it to get all of them reset.

 

Interesting reg tweak.
The one I had in mind was at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
MaxCachedIcons entry
Increase to 12000 (that's one Kelly uses, line 121 left column here)
Log off to take effect.

 

Yeah DAVE, this one is on line 166 right side. It's a .reg file whereas the line 121 item is a VB script. I suspect either will work well since it has passed muster with Kelly Theriot.

I think BOBBO's problem may be deeper than what we have tilled up to this point but time will tell.

BOBBO, I assume you are rebooting for effect after changing the cache size??

 

surferdude2:

No, I'm afraid I wasn't. So now I did it and that scrambled the Desktop icons. But several clicks on Restore Icons gradually put them back in the correct arrangement, each click making some additional improvement.

It may well be. This series of operations I've been going through, do they require access to the Registry's Permissions file to stick? If they do, that could point to the root of the problem. Several months ago I opened a thread here regarding taskbars, and after a long series of posts it was discovered that for some reason my Registry wouldn't permit certain changes. Access to Permissions was denied. After trying many different recommended fixes, I wound up buying and installing a new copy of Win XP (HE) with SP2. Didn't help.

For the most part my computer works quite well, considering it's 6 years old. The problems still remaining seem to be more matters of aesthetics rather than function. Do you think this Desktop icons issue is linked to that Registry Permissions matter?

 

I can't discount that possibility but I doubt it.

If your problem persists, try creating a new User with administrator priveleges and log onto it. If that leaves your problem behind, you can copy the necessary files from your present User id into the new one and dump the old one.

If you think that's too much trouble, I wouldn't blame you. Your system is usable and if the little nuisances are tolerable, perhaps leave it be.