How to sort desktop icons — for keeps

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	LANGALIST PLUS[/size][/font] How to sort desktop icons — for keeps[/size]
	By Fred Langa It’s been a constant, low-level frustration for years. You get your desktop icons just right, and then Windows moves them on you. Fortunately, a couple of easy tweaks can give you permanent control over exactly where your icons go![/size]

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The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/2010/12/16/05 (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Dear Fred,

In your article “How to sort desktop icons — for keeps” you state:

you’ll be able to set up — and keep! — your Desktop just the way you want

(emphasis is mine)

Well, I beg to differ. IMHO and years-long experience, the way Windows manages the desktop icon layout has always been a problem.

… many times the computer will rearrange these icons for no particular reason.

But to keep a long story, started with Windows 95, short, I’ll just give this link to solutions:
Save and Restore Windows Desktop and Icons

or Google for ”save desktop icon layout”

Finally, this function may be bundled with the utilities of higher-end graphics cards.

P.S. Melissa Nguyen’s EzDesk worked up to XP, but no more since Vista.

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Every time you connect to an external video source, e.g. projector, the screen resolution changes and when you go back to laptop only resolution, the icons are all over the place. Some outside software has limited help, but nothing works perfectly.

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This is one area that MS failed to improve on with the intro of Win7. Desktop icons behave exactly the same way as they have in previous versions of Windows. Brenda, have you looked at Stardock’s “Fences”? Even the free version does a nice job of taming the desktop.

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OK – a question about the security of e-mail portion of the article.

I understand that webmail is not secure at all, but what about the e-mail addresses you get with your ISP?

How do they rank in security versus webmail and your own domain?

Thank you – and Merry Christmas everyone!

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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I’m renaming desktop icons by adding a number in front of their names like:
01-Internet Explorer
or
99- Document X
this way they are always stay where I wanted to stay in row. This way you can also grouping them in like number 20 to 29 would be for text documents, 30-39 would be for application short cuts…

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“Once you understand the two-step, ascend-descend nature of Windows’ icon-sorting options and the either-or nature of manual versus automatic sorts, you’ll be able to set up — and keep! — your Desktop just the way you want.”

Except that Windows likes to change the desktop icon layout positions without warning after operating system updates, screen resolution changes, or new applications are installed. Or sometimes after DST changes, or just because Windows feels like it.

Icon Restore is a simple solution.

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-save-your-desktop-icon-layout-in-windows-xp/

http://users.rcn.com/taylotr/icon_restore.html

Edit: I seemed to have duplicated the info that was in E Pericoloso Sporgersi post above. Sorry.

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E-Mail Service Providers are increasingly using message content to create “targeted” or “personalized” ads. This is what the change in the Yahoo Privacy Policy is doing. If you want not to have to deal with this issue, try Fastmail ( http://www.fastmail.fm ). This service is associated with the Opera Browser, but anyone can use it. For those with desktop e-mail clients, the free Fastmail accounts only allow IMAP access, not POP-3, and do not have a client-based Send Mail server. All outgoing messages have to go via Web Mail.

What Yahoo is doing has been done by Google’s G-Mail for years, and is an increasing trend. We either live with it, or else buy a Domain and set up our own e-mail service.

As for e-mail security, the addresses supplied by ISPs are no more and no less secure than those supplied directly by Yahoo and others. And the Privacy Policies are often less private than with a direct account. I could use SBC Global for my Yahoo Account, but I prefer to pay Yahoo and not be subjected to as much targeted advertising as SBC Global puts out. Plus, if I ever change ISPs, my Yahoo paid account will be able to move with me without any hassles.

-- rc primak

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I’ve been using Icon Restore for years. Turn off Auto-arrange, make your arrangement, right-click and “save.” Any time it’s messed up, right-clink and “restore.” If YOU change the arrangement, it overwrites the old one.

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Fred
I haven’t had problems with Windows re-arranging my icons–or maybe I just don’t notice–but I am annoyed by the fact that Windows puts icons in two separate alphabetical lists, with no apparent rhyme or reason to the way it assigns icons.

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Hi Fred, I have been reading your articles and newsletter for ages. Thanks for all the tips !
In reference to your article about Sorting Windows Icons, I found a perfect solution in 2005.
It is called Icon Restore, and is still available for download.

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