My sister keeps messing up the order of the icons on my computer. She just highlights a bunch of 'em and drags 'em to someplace else. We do have auto-arrange on, so they are in nice, neat rows, it’s just that every time I turn the computer is on, I have to look somewhere else to play Tribes or get into the hard drive. Is there any way to lock these so she can’t move them?
If you’re a Windows user, how about creating separate user profiles? That way, she can mess around all she wants, but once you’ve logged on as yourself it’ll load your personal display settings.
Just search for profiles, user in the Windows help menu. Follow the instructions - especially the one about checking the “Users can customize their preferences and desktop settings” option.
My parents don’t like the little box popping up before Windows starts. Any other suggestions?
Sorry…I don’t know any other way of “locking” icons without using password protection, especially since Windows is obviously geared towards making them easy to add, remove and alter.
How old is your sister? (serious question)
I mean, is this a grade-schooler we’re talking about, junior high, high school? Is she too little to really understand about the icons? Maybe she just fiddles around with them because she CAN, like nobody lets her do anything else of significance, that changes anything.
Is this a sibling rivalry power play, or does she just genuinely prefer to have WordPad over HERE and My Computer over HERE?
Is getting her (or you) another computer an option? You can pick up used computers with old-fashioned slow Pentiums from 1998 for, literally, a song. Check the ads, ask around. What kind of stuff do you and she (and your folks) want to do on the computer? If she’s just playing FreeCell, get her her own computer.
She’s in Middle School. She understands about the icons and stuff. I don’t think she’s intentionally being mean, I think she’s just bored, but she does it all the time. She doesn’t care where the icons are, because all she uses are RollerCoaster Tycoon and NotePad. I told her to stop and she just gets mad. Another computer really isn’t an option, because we just got this one (paid quite a bit, too) and she (and coincidentally either of my parents) doesn’t use it enough to warrant getting another one, even if it was only a couple hundred dollars. I’ve been thinking. . .
{CAN YOU HIJACK YOUR OWN POST???}
I played a prank on my youth minister a while back. You get your desktop up, looking exactly as it normally does. You then hit Print Screen and paste that into Paint. Save it as something inconspicuous in your windows folder. Now, go into your desktop folder and cut and paste everything into a separate folder (outside of your desktop folder). Go back to your desktop, and hide your Start toolbar (put it on top, where it turns into arrows and click and drag down. Now right click on the desktop and click properties. Set the print screen you saved as your wall paper. TRY IT!!! {END OF SELF-INFLICTED HIJACKING}
Oops, forgot the end parenthasis. Also, IT refers to your mouse arrow.
Boy. That’s a dirty little trick. So neat yet effective. 
I don’t know of any way to lock icons either. Maybe you could do a “sort icons” command every time you start using the computer? Just right-click on the desktop and the command is right there. It’s no more trouble than entering a username/password.
Actually, ‘locking icons’ is a built-in feature of win9x – but it’s phrased in reverse. Technically most of us have our win systems to ‘save desktop on exit’. If you arrange your icons, and then turn that feature off, everything will be the same when you reboot, time after time. You’ll need to turn it back on to make any changes – and reboot once after you’ve made the changes. Small price to pay
I use way too many OS’s to trust myself to run through all the options from memory anymore, but I’m pretty sure that TweakUI (a free download from Microsoft) allows you to change this (and many other nifty details of the User Interface). there are many commercial and shareware programs (MoreProperties, X-Setup, etc. ) that have this capability too, but I’d stick with TweakUI, if this is all you want to do. It’s free, it’s MS (which isn’t usually praise in my book), and I haven’t heard any complaints about problems
Just get the right version of TweakUI for your OS
Well, buddy, as the proud parent of 3 school-age kids, all of whom use the computer, let me advise you that you are in a serious Sibling Rivalry War situation here. I’m assuming you’re older, yes? Here’s my take on the situation, FWIW.
[ul]
[li]YOU are allowed to fiddle with things on the computer, i.e. install software, change desktop, change settings, etc. SHE is not.[/li][li]She resents this.[/li][li]She therefore fiddles with what she IS allowed to fiddle with, i.e. the icons.[/li][li]Actually, you know, fiddling with the icons IS fun. They’re cute, and colorful. It’s nifty to slide them around, especially if it puts big brother/sister’s nose out of joint.[/li][li]Therefore, find something cute, colorful, and not too intelligence-insulting for her to be allowed to change on the desktop. Maybe give her carte blanche to change the wallpaper anytime she wants? Create a customized “Sis” wallpaper for her? Help her create a customized screen saver? I’ve got something called the Ace Desktop, with the Ace Screen saver (it’s an Acer computer from 1996), where you can put your own JPEG and TIF files in, and change them around whenever you like.[/li][li]Or, just get used to having to look for your icons every time.[/li][/ul]
I don’t think there’s a “tech” answer for this; I think it’s a Human Relations problem.
re: your folks not liking the “little box” that appears every time if you’ve got different Profiles set–
Now I will tell you about the Great Wallpaper War. All 5 of us here decided we liked different wallpaper. So we each had our own profile. But we’re not in an Office Situation–not “paranoid about co-workers”, etc. So, I discovered that you DON’T have to give each person a password–if you just create different user names for different desktops, but leave the space for password blank, then when the little box comes up when you turn on the computer, all you have to do is hit Enter and it will go to that person’s desktop. Thus, you don’t have to stop and type in a password, although of course you do have to check and make sure the correct user name is in the blank. Give everybody a real short, 3 or 4-character name. Mom, Dad, Bud, Sis, etc., then hit Enter and go.
My sympathies to you if you have someone in your family who really likes the “Bubbles”.
Also, it occurs to me to mention that if you are going to start using different Profiles, in WordPad and NotePad especially, if you hit Save, the default is to put it on the Desktop, as a little red and white letter icon, “gettysburgaddress.doc” or whatever. However, if you are using different Profiles, of course that would be silly for it to put it on EVERYBODY’S desktop, so it puts the document in My Briefcase or something squirrelly like that.
We had several go-rounds with this, trying to figure out where all the lost documents went, until we figured this out. If you just pay more attention to what’s in the address line before you hit Save, you’ll be OK.
I finally ended up creating multiple folders in WordPad and NotePad, Paint, etc., like Mom’s WordPad Writing, Dad’s WordPad Writing, Junior’s WordPad Writing, which was tedious, but once we got everybody trained to check before they hit Save, we stopped losing documents. (Actually, the DOCUMENTS weren’t lost–WE were. 
)
Also, if you install new software, it will put a shortcut icon only on the desktop that you were using when you installed it. You’ll have to go to everybody else’s desktop and create individual shortcuts, if they want them.