A Trivial Windows 10 Annoyance

[fohat.digs]

I keep a couple of dozen shortcut icons on my Windows desktop. I like to have about 4 vertical columns to the left side of the screen.

To me, there seem to be logical groupings such as general computer "utility" stuff, "office" stuff, media, internet, etc, and I would want to be able to arrange my columns to have icons that I think of as similar grouped together.

No matter how many times I rearrange them, Windows re-shuffles them into random placement. And it doesn't even do anything logical such as pack them up and to the left into the most dense formation, it just spews them around into an indiscriminate scattershot.

Is there a way to have Windows leave them where I put them? Thanks

[Rika]

I keep a couple of dozen shortcut icons on my Windows desktop. I like to have about 4 vertical columns to the left side of the screen.

To me, there seem to be logical groupings such as general computer "utility" stuff, "office" stuff, media, internet, etc, and I would want to be able to arrange my columns to have icons that I think of as similar grouped together.

No matter how many times I rearrange them, Windows re-shuffles them into random placement. And it doesn't even do anything logical such as pack them up and to the left into the most dense formation, it just spews them around into an indiscriminate scattershot.

Is there a way to have Windows leave them where I put them? Thanks

The **** Do you do many things or anything that lowers your resolution, such as old software and games with exclusive fullscreen?

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[fohat.digs]

All hardware is less than a year old and all software is up to date. I don't game at all except for the occasional game of solitaire.

[Rika]

All hardware is less than a year old and all software is up to date. I don't game at all except for the occasional game of solitaire.

Huh, so nothing that changes your resolution then? As even new stuff can.

When do the icons get thrown about, does it only happen on boot or is it after doing something and you check to use it and it's mixed, if it is, can you somewhat organise and then try different things, it might still be one of the programs, outside of resolution changes I can't say I've encountered such a thing before

And just for the sake of asking, is your windows 64 or 32 bit

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[fohat.digs]

Windows 10 64-bit updated regularly. ASRock motherboard, Radeon RX580, 2 Dell monitors (1 is only about a month old), plenty of RAM and disk space.

The shuffling happens when I boot anew.

[Rika]

Hmm, as I say, I'm not to sure of the cause, but try whenever you have time to do whatever, unplugging a monitor and organising then reboot, might not "fix" it if it does end up being some monitor jank, but would atleast identify it

If it is, my guess would be it's something to do with how it boots and either something weird from that or one is lower res, either way, if it is 1 (or having both) monitor(s) then apart from possibly having a program instead (rainmeter might work, dunno, just a random related thought) or some other UI that is constant I don't think I can help much more, but atleast you'd know the cause

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[Rika]

Actually, I think it is a monitor thing as I think on one of mine the desktop is messed up (this is very much from memory as my memory is beyond bad), could try organising on a different one as outside of memory i KNOW it is as everything is aligned on the left on my main (the one the windows signin screen appears on)

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[Tactile]

Check out Fences from Stardock. It's not free, but cheap enough ($6 as I write this).

[Leslieann]

If it's happening on boot it's likely a driver issue, it may be activating a display output at a default resolution before switching to the others. It shouldn't but it might.

Do you have a second screen (a lower resolution one?), it may be defaulting to it on boot, in which case the easy fix is swap the ports, if you can, so the main one boots first. If you don't have another screen, check the resolution settings to see if maybe the system thinks there is something else connected. Again, swapping ports might actually fix it.

Worst case, you may need to arrange the icons differently, instead of 4 columns, you may have to do 6 sorter ones, or combine some into a folder, or just move them around a bit so they don't get jumbled on boot.

[fohat.digs]

Current (recommended) resolution for Display 1 is 1920x1080 and for Display 2 is 1920x1200.

1 is HDMI and 2 is DVI-D, and the graphics card seems to insist that it stay that way.

Am I hearing that I should set Display 2 to 1920x1080 also? I will try that.
 

[Rika]

Current (recommended) resolution for Display 1 is 1920x1080 and for Display 2 is 1920x1200.

1 is HDMI and 2 is DVI-D, and the graphics card seems to insist that it stay that way.

Am I hearing that I should set Display 2 to 1920x1080 also? I will try that.

Is display 2 the one you are putting them on, if so, then it is quite possibly it being initialised at disp 1s res and the shortcuts don't fit on that and thus windows goes sifb4 rjdcidbesj over them in which case setting it to 1080 will probably fix it and I presume you don't mind considering that response

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[fohat.digs]

No, icons reside on Display 1.

edit - this looks like it fixed the icon problem, but it has monkeyed with programs that I open on Display 2 - I lose bars and ribbons in the black never-never-land stripe at the top of the screen

[Leslieann]

I wouldn't change the resolution but at least you found the problem, and it is a resolution/initialization issue.
If those are your only ports, your best bet is to alter the icon layout to match the 1080 then set it to 1200.

HDMI is a garbage standard for computers and never should have been put on them, we should have jumped right to DisplayPort. Which by the way, FIRE whoever the F came up with that name. If you ever have issues with an HDMI port, plug one end of the HDMI into a DVI or DisplayPort adapter  and then into the screen, it will fix it. I've had to do this with multiple screens, doesn't matter the screen or GPU, there's just something in the HDMI spec that doesn't work right. It has been fixed on newer GPUS that lack DVI or VGA but if your card is old enough to support DVI or VGA that HDMI port is going to be a steaming pile of garbage.

[fohat.digs]

If those are your only ports, your best bet is to alter the icon layout to match the 1080 then set it to 1200.

The HDMI 1920x1080 is the newer and better monitor, it has always been in the #1 position and set to 1920x1080. That is where the icons are.

[JP]

Check this out:

https://www.minitool.com/news/windows-10-desktop-icons-moving.html

[Leslieann]

The HDMI 1920x1080 is the newer and better monitor, it has always been in the #1 position and set to 1920x1080. That is where the icons are.

It may have been doing this all along and you not notice or there was a Windows or driver change.

I still blame HDMI, for every system it works fine going hdmi-hdmi I have to go HDMI to DVI or DisplayPort to avoid problems with something not correctly handling the resolution. I avoid it like the plague.

[Sintpinty]

I keep a couple of dozen shortcut icons on my Windows desktop. I like to have about 4 vertical columns to the left side of the screen.

To me, there seem to be logical groupings such as general computer "utility" stuff, "office" stuff, media, internet, etc, and I would want to be able to arrange my columns to have icons that I think of as similar grouped together.

No matter how many times I rearrange them, Windows re-shuffles them into random placement. And it doesn't even do anything logical such as pack them up and to the left into the most dense formation, it just spews them around into an indiscriminate scattershot.

Is there a way to have Windows leave them where I put them? Thanks

Translucent taskbar is great

[Darthbaggins]

anytime I have an option for a DP connector on a display, that is what I use - even refuse to buy panels w/out it.  HDMI is so inconsistent, also wish TV's would include a DP port as well.