{"id":3607,"date":"2016-07-26T13:27:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T07:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=3607"},"modified":"2021-06-01T16:08:27","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T10:38:27","slug":"undo-desktop-icons-auto-arrange-restart-explorer-exe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/undo-desktop-icons-auto-arrange-restart-explorer-exe\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Undo Desktop Icons Auto Arrange? [Quick Tip]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;ve accidentally reset your custom desktop icons layout by enabling Auto-arrange or by hitting a wrong key sequence, here is a neat trick to revert back to the original position.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Desktop icons layout remains in the memory until you initiate a logoff. During user account logoff or when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/exit-explorer-restart-windows-10-8\/\">restarting Explorer cleanly<\/a>, the desktop icons position is saved to the registry.<\/p>\n<p>To quickly revert to the original icon positions during the current logon session, forcible kill and restart the <code>Explorer.exe<\/code> process. To do that, press <kbd>Win<\/kbd>\u00a0+ <kbd>R<\/kbd> to launch the Run dialog, type the following command, and press <kbd>Enter<\/kbd>:<\/p>\n<pre>taskkill \/f \/IM explorer.exe<\/pre>\n<p>The above command works in all versions and editions of Windows. In Windows Pro editions, alternately, you can <strong>also<\/strong> use this command:<\/p>\n<pre>tskill explorer<\/pre>\n<p>This closes all folder windows, kills Explorer shell, and restarts it. The last saved desktop icons position (written during the previous logoff) is now applied. Of course, this would work only if you&#8217;ve inadvertently changed the desktop icon layout during the current logon session.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_Kv98ew8xiI\" width=\"650\" height=\"490\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Note that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/exit-explorer-restart-windows-10-8\/\">cleanly exiting Explorer<\/a> won&#8217;t help in this case, as it would save the current desktop icons layout to the registry.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rp\"><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/save-and-restore-desktop-icon-layout\/\">Save and Restore Desktop icon layout in Windows<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;ve accidentally reset your custom desktop icons layout by enabling Auto-arrange or by hitting a wrong key sequence, here is a neat trick to revert back to the original position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1079,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/disable-auto-arrange-folders-windows-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":3607,"position":0},"title":"How to Disable Auto Arrange in Folders in Windows 7?","author":"Ramesh","date":"September 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows 7 doesn't include an option wherein you can disable auto arrange in folders (icons view). Sometime back I created a magical registry hack (FFlags DWORD 43000001) that disabled the \"Full Row Select\" functionality in folders in Windows 7. I also posted some interesting observations in article How to Disable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 7&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 7","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-7\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":984,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-desktop-icons-layout-not-saved-restart\/","url_meta":{"origin":3607,"position":1},"title":"Fix for Desktop Icons Layout Not Getting Saved Upon Restarting Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows saves the desktop icon layout when the user logs off, and the setting is read during logon. Recently I came across a case where the desktop icons rearrange to their default positions after a restart or logoff\/login cycle. This turned out to be a Permissions issue with a registry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"exit explorer windows 10","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/exit-expl-w10.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4931,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/restart-explorer-gracefully-shortcut-command\/","url_meta":{"origin":3607,"position":2},"title":"How to Restart Explorer Cleanly Using Shortcut or Command-line","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When you make changes to the Windows registry using the Registry Editor, script or any other automation tool, you may have to logoff and login back for the changes to take effect. That's especially true if you're altering the UI element metrics or changing the shell namespace folder icons etc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"restart explorer gracefully","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/save-and-restore-desktop-icon-layout\/","url_meta":{"origin":3607,"position":3},"title":"How to Save and Restore Desktop Icon Layout Automatically in Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"March 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When testing various display resolutions or after completing a remote desktop session, the desktop icons may go out of order. Another case is that when you accidentally use the Ctrl+ Scroll button (mouse) on your desktop, the Desktop icon size changes.\u00a0But reverting to the original icon size may not restore\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Utilities&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Utilities","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/utilities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"desktop icon layout desktopok","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/desktop-ok-save-icon-layout.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/desktop-ok-save-icon-layout.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/desktop-ok-save-icon-layout.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":762,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/explore-desktop-context-menu-vista\/","url_meta":{"origin":3607,"position":4},"title":"How to Add &#8220;Explore&#8221; to the Desktop Context Menu in Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"November 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This post shows how to add \"Explore\" to the desktop right-click menu. This tip is especially for users who hide the desktop icons for a plain desktop but want to quickly access the Desktop folder when required, without toggling the Show Desktop Icons option in the context menu. Add \"Explore\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/desktop-expl.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":970,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/clear-customize-notifications-tray-items-windows\/","url_meta":{"origin":3607,"position":5},"title":"How to Clear Customize Notifications (Taskbar Corner Overflow) Icons","author":"Ramesh","date":"February 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Over time, many invalid or obsolete taskbar notification icons may appear on the \"Customize notifications\" or the \"Select which icons appear on the Taskbar\" page with duplicate, invalid or missing icons. On Windows 11, the setting is called \"Taskbar corner overflow.\" It's located under Personalization \u2192 Taskbar, in the Settings\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"taskbar tray overflow remove single entry","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/tray-overflow-icon-remove-single-entry-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/tray-overflow-icon-remove-single-entry-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/tray-overflow-icon-remove-single-entry-3.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}