I've had my new Dell and Vista Home Premium for a couple of weeks. I've
carefully arranged about 20 desktop icons in related groupings. But this
morning when I turned on the computer, they were all lined up along the left
hand side. Can anyone tell me what happened and how to lock them where I
want them. I tried "Search" but it didn't help.

Thank you.

Gaylin

To add to my own question below: Now I realize that I can't move my icons
around at all. Somehow they got locked in place and I don't know how to
unlock them!

Thanks.

Gaylin


"Gaylin" wrote:

> I've had my new Dell and Vista Home Premium for a couple of weeks. I've
> carefully arranged about 20 desktop icons in related groupings. But this
> morning when I turned on the computer, they were all lined up along the left
> hand side. Can anyone tell me what happened and how to lock them where I
> want them. I tried "Search" but it didn't help.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Gaylin

Hi,
Right click on the desktop and you should see VIEW as your first context
menu selection. point at this and it will probabally show ALIGN TO GRID
checked. UNCHECK this and your icons will stay where you want them. Be
sure you dont accidentilly check auto arrainge. This will auto matically
arrainge them. uncheck both of these and your icons shold stay where you
want them.

or in the case of the other question... Check one of these and your icons
will automatically be arrainged or alligned!




"Gaylin" <Gaylin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B7B2CAD9-1E65-4BC8-8890-835489375EC4@microsoft.com...
> I've had my new Dell and Vista Home Premium for a couple of weeks. I've
> carefully arranged about 20 desktop icons in related groupings. But this
> morning when I turned on the computer, they were all lined up along the
> left
> hand side. Can anyone tell me what happened and how to lock them where I
> want them. I tried "Search" but it didn't help.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Gaylin

Right click on the desktop and select view. Make sure auto arrange is not
selected.
--
Paul


"Gaylin" wrote:

> To add to my own question below: Now I realize that I can't move my icons
> around at all. Somehow they got locked in place and I don't know how to
> unlock them!
>
> Thanks.
>
> Gaylin
>
>
> "Gaylin" wrote:
>
> > I've had my new Dell and Vista Home Premium for a couple of weeks. I've
> > carefully arranged about 20 desktop icons in related groupings. But this
> > morning when I turned on the computer, they were all lined up along the left
> > hand side. Can anyone tell me what happened and how to lock them where I
> > want them. I tried "Search" but it didn't help.
> >
> > Thank you.
> >
> > Gaylin

Hi Gaylin

Right click on your desktop and go to the view menu. Turn off Autoarrange
and you will be able to move them. If you turn off align to grid you will
then be able to move them anywhere you want.

"Gaylin" wrote:

> I've had my new Dell and Vista Home Premium for a couple of weeks. I've
> carefully arranged about 20 desktop icons in related groupings. But this
> morning when I turned on the computer, they were all lined up along the left
> hand side. Can anyone tell me what happened and how to lock them where I
> want them. I tried "Search" but it didn't help.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Gaylin

It also removes the anxiety if you can restore the original desktop layout.
Try this, which adds Save/Restore Desktop Icon Layout to the context menu of
the Recycle Bin:
http://discuss.pcmag.com/forums/thread/385101003.aspx
see third message there for how to install. It works fine with Vista.
Look for LAYOUT.DLL and LAYOUT.REG in layout.zip from the MS Windows NT 4.0
Resource Kit.
If somewhere there is an option to run as administrator, take it.
When restoring your icon layout, icons sometimes "bump into each other", so
you may have to restore twice or thrice in quick succession to get a perfect
restore. I can't imagine being without this. Doug


"Gaylin" <Gaylin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B7B2CAD9-1E65-4BC8-8890-835489375EC4@microsoft.com...
> I've had my new Dell and Vista Home Premium for a couple of weeks. I've
> carefully arranged about 20 desktop icons in related groupings. But this
> morning when I turned on the computer, they were all lined up along the
> left
> hand side. Can anyone tell me what happened and how to lock them where I
> want them. I tried "Search" but it didn't help.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Gaylin

Right click on your desktop. There are your settings. Wayne
--



Wayne L.


"Gaylin" wrote:

> To add to my own question below: Now I realize that I can't move my icons
> around at all. Somehow they got locked in place and I don't know how to
> unlock them!
>
> Thanks.
>
> Gaylin
>
>
> "Gaylin" wrote:
>
> > I've had my new Dell and Vista Home Premium for a couple of weeks. I've
> > carefully arranged about 20 desktop icons in related groupings. But this
> > morning when I turned on the computer, they were all lined up along the left
> > hand side. Can anyone tell me what happened and how to lock them where I
> > want them. I tried "Search" but it didn't help.
> >
> > Thank you.
> >
> > Gaylin