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Windows Desktop Icons

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  • Feb 14th, 2015 10:36 pm
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Deal Fanatic
Aug 3, 2014
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Windows Desktop Icons

I have View > Auto arrange icons and Sort by > Name checked but why are the icons arranged like in the screenshot? Is there a way to "fix" this?

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/qDqHQXD.png[/IMG]
12 replies
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
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Mostly because Microsoft doesn't know the Alphabet yet. Even 5 year olds know their ABCs.
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Jul 27, 2009
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death_hawk wrote: Mostly because Microsoft doesn't know the Alphabet yet. Even 5 year olds know their ABCs.
You and your useless post bitching about Microsoft again. My Icon arrangement is just fine on my Windows 8.1. You will not be able to arrange Apps such as Recycle bin, Control Panel ect. like that since Windows put them on top as priority. Best thing is to arrange yourself by turning off Auto Arrange Icons and move it yourself with the Align Icons to Grid or else use a program like Nimi Places or Fences to arrange/group Icons to whatever you like and place them anywhere on your desktop.

The easiest solution is this. Show you desktop Icons ei(recycle bin, Computer, Control Panel) and create a shortcut for each one. Go into Profile and remove/uncheck Desktop Icons ei(recycle bin, Computer, Control Panel) and now your shortcuts should arrange/sort by name alphabetically.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
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LEXX911 wrote: You will not be able to arrange Apps such as Recycle bin, Control Panel ect. like that since Windows put them on top as priority. Best thing is to arrange yourself by turning off Auto Arrange Icons and move it yourself with the Align Icons to Grid
This is all well and good but looking at OP's picture, the only icons that are out of place relative to "special" icons are shortcuts, folders, and files.
Even relative to shortcuts alone, MS's alphabet consists of i, O, q, C, K, P.
There's no logical way that even makes sense.
or else use a program like Nimi Places or Fences to arrange/group Icons to whatever you like and place them anywhere on your desktop.
I love how all solutions to things that MS screws up are "install a 3rd party program to fix it". It's incredible how many there are nowadays. Heck, I spend more time installing "fixes" than I do installing the actual OS itself.
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Jul 27, 2009
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death_hawk wrote: This is all well and good but looking at OP's picture, the only icons that are out of place relative to "special" icons are shortcuts, folders, and files.
Even relative to shortcuts alone, MS's alphabet consists of i, O, q, C, K, P.
There's no logical way that even makes sense.



I love how all solutions to things that MS screws up are "install a 3rd party program to fix it". It's incredible how many there are nowadays. Heck, I spend more time installing "fixes" than I do installing the actual OS itself.
Seriously you need to stop it with your naivity about Microsoft already. Your free Linux isn't perfect either. You still have to go in there and install a whole bunch of other smaller apps and stuff to get it to do exactly how you want it. If you spend more time fixing Windows than that's you(the USER) problem. I'm sure the OP is doing something wrong there that if his shortcuts alone doesn't rearrange as it should. My link to that Nimi Place isn't to fix his problem but a better solution to arrange your ICONS.
Deal Addict
Nov 21, 2008
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Go to C:\Users\yourname\Desktop directory. Move all LNK files to directory C:\Users\Public\Destop.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
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LEXX911 wrote: Seriously you need to stop it with your naivity about Microsoft already.
It's no better than blind defense.
Your free Linux isn't perfect either. You still have to go in there and install a whole bunch of other smaller apps and stuff to get it to do exactly how you want it.
Actually stock it's pretty much complete. There's very few usability tweaks I have to go through for a usable system. I have to fix a few config files but there's no 3rd party thing I have to install to hack in new config files.
I'm not saying I don't have to install other applications because let's face it, what's an OS without applications. But there's far fewer needless applications on Linux than Windows.

EDIT: Reworded entire sentence.
If you spend more time fixing Windows than that's you(the USER) problem.

I disagree.
I'm sure the OP is doing something wrong there that if his shortcuts alone doesn't rearrange as it should. My link to that Nimi Place isn't to fix his problem but a better solution to arrange your ICONS.
I've never successfully had alphabetical sorting work right either. I can overlook the "priority" icons of Computer/Documents/Recycle Bin but everything else sorts strangely.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
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robertz wrote: Go to C:\Users\yourname\Desktop directory. Move all LNK files to directory C:\Users\Public\Destop.
Oh and this is the right answer. Well mostly since "Desktop" is spelled wrong but you get the idea.
You may see "Public Desktop" instead of "Desktop" if you're looking in the C:\Users\Public directory because Windows is being "helpful" by displaying something stupid instead of the actual folder name.
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Jul 27, 2009
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death_hawk wrote: Oh and this is the right answer. Well mostly since "Desktop" is spelled wrong but you get the idea.
You may see "Public Desktop" instead of "Desktop" if you're looking in the C:\Users\Public directory because Windows is being "helpful" by displaying something stupid instead of the actual folder name.
Oh course that's the right answer. Like I said. It's the USER mistake. Creating shortcuts and such from different places. If you wnt to unify everything you place it into the Public Folder or create shortcuts onto your OWN user name Desktop. If you have numeric problem with your files not arranging properly there are 2 ways to fix that:

-run Regedit
In [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] if you see no Explorer create a Key "Explorer" within the Policies folder for 64bit Windows=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Policies\Explorer
-create DWORD NoStrCmpLogical and set its value to 1

or open Command Prompt as admin and copy and paste this line: reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Policies\Explorer
/v NoStrCmpLogical /t REG_DWORD /d 1


and or

-run gpedit.msc
-Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer
-under "Turn off numerical sorting in Windows Explorer" and set its value to Enabled
-restart of sign out and sign back in
Deal Expert
Feb 29, 2008
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death_hawk wrote: Oh and this is the right answer. Well mostly since "Desktop" is spelled wrong but you get the idea.
You may see "Public Desktop" instead of "Desktop" if you're looking in the C:\Users\Public directory because Windows is being "helpful" by displaying something stupid instead of the actual folder name.
Tis creates the problem of multiple users having the same shortcuts.
Deal Fanatic
Aug 3, 2014
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I'm actually OK with the user folder, This PC and Recycle Bin icons being at the top.
robertz wrote: Go to C:\Users\yourname\Desktop directory. Move all LNK files to directory C:\Users\Public\Destop.
That worked! Thanks
LEXX911 wrote: Oh course that's the right answer. Like I said. It's the USER mistake. Creating shortcuts and such from different places. If you wnt to unify everything you place it into the Public Folder or create shortcuts onto your OWN user name Desktop. If you have numeric problem with your files not arranging properly there are 2 ways to fix that:
Actually, those shortcuts were created automatically by their respective installers. I only created the folder music1 and the notepad file result.txt.
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Jul 27, 2009
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If anyone find a solution that can arrange for example in this order let me know:
TEST.jpg
TEST ll.jpg
TEST lll.jpg

The only way to get it to work if there is a space after TEST:
TEST .jpg
TEST ll.jpg
TEST lll.jpg

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