Windows Vista – Fix Rearranged Desktop Icons
This is an issue that infuriated me about Vista. Overall I thought it was a good OS and a decent improvement over XP. I never had the stability problems that many reported so I’ve been pretty happy. Except for one thing that annoyed the heck out of me — at random startup intervals Vista completely rearranged the icons on my desktop. And that pisses me off!
I haven’t found a fix that stops Vista from doing it, but I did find a way to quickly repair the damage. Apparently, back in the Windows NT days, Microsoft had a similar problem. And instead of fixing it, they released a simple set of DLLs that add a “Save Desktop Configuration” and a “Restore Desktop Configuration” option to a system right-click menu. Turns out they still work!
The simplest implementation I found is located at http://users.rcn.com/taylotr/icon_restore.html. The web page was last updated in 2003, but who cares — it’s installed and working on my Vista Ultimate machine.
I'm old enough to have been around the internet since the beginning -- starting with private BBS systems which I accessed via a Hayes 300 baud modem and then moving on to a genuine CompuServe account! I have a degree in Environmental Science and have had a varied career starting in a laboratory, followed by 10 years in Service & Operations for a large networking equipment manufacturer, and now in a Product Management role for an innovative healthcare organization. I started making web pages on Angelfire and other free services, and can remember when NetZero actually provided Internet access for free (hence the zero in the name). Among other things, I build my own PCs and run my own Linux servers at home for fun.
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