anal graphic designer i am very specific how i like my desktop to be arranged. i always have my icons lined up at the bottom of the screen, showing only the graphic.
ever since i installed xp the damn icons fly all over the place. i can not get them to stay put, at the bottom of the screen. i do not have auto-arrange checked. i have tried every setting on right click.
is bill gates sitting back with his arms behind his head laughing? what is happening here.
When you say “all over the place” do you mean that they go to some random (unprecictable) place each time they move? Also, when do they move, (ie when the computer is reset, or can you watch them move). Once they move to a new location do they move again??? If you answered yes to some of these, it could be a virus on your system that’s playing with the icons (and hopefully nothing else).
now that you mention it remember hearing about that desktop virus.
what the icons do is move from the bottom over to the left and line up, like they do when you tell it to align icons. then sometimes they move back to the bottom.
i have not been able to figure out what prompts them to move but it happens when i am on line. i will line them up, check out a few sites and when i go back to the desktop some of them have lined up on the left side.
over the period of a day they will all move over and then some of them move back.
Silly question but you’re not logging in as two different users at different times are you?
Is your screen resolution being changed at all throughout the day? If you are set at say, 1400x1050 (my personal pref) and the resolution is changed to 800x600, any icons that would have been out of the viewable area will be stacked at the top-left.
not logging in as two different users, not changing resolutons. icons are still flying around.
did a virus check, nothing there and no teenagers living in the house.
There’s at least one prog available at http://www.computerpranks.com/
which messes with icons.
Could someone have tricked you into installing a prank program?
i had loaded some wave editing programs but do not know of any prank programs.
i have been trying to get a clue as to when they move and there is a possibility it may have to do with when i use them. for instance i used adobe photoshop a little while ago and it has now moved from the side back to the bottom where i originally placed it.
when they do move from the bottom of the screen to the left side they line up perfectly from the top to the bottom of the screen. it isn’t as random as i might have originally suggested.
last year i had a nightmare of a problem with my compaq computer dialing out. after three long months i discovered it was tied to rfi interference from a dimmer switch in my office.
so this stupid icon problem could be tied to anything i guess.
Well - assuming it’s a not a virus that does a good job of hiding itself, and it could be a prank…
First check your startup folder, then run msconfig and look for anything suspicious.
I think it your use of the word “flying” that is throwing me. If you actually see the icons moving from one place to another, it’s probably the Magistr Virus, or one of its deriviatives. Magistr also makes icons run away from your mouse pointer. I am not aware of any other virus that moves desktop icons.
If the icons move when you aren’t looking, and are just in a different place when you return to the desktop, it is probably something else.
Sorry about that link, here’s a bettter one for Magistr:
i checked for virus and there was nothing listed.
here is what happens as best as i can describe. i line up all my icons, currently 16, along the bottom of the desktop. after i have been on the computer for awhile and go back to the desk top, usually about half of the icons are now perfectly aligned on the left side of the screen.
update on my stupid moving icon problem.
i changed my wallpaper and the problem has stopped. someone explain that?