See if you can create a sample registry value in the Desktop key to test if you can write to the branch.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nStep 3: Reset the Desktop Icon Layout Registry Key<\/h4>\n
This step is required only if the problem remains unresolved although you’re able to write to the Desktop<\/b> registry key.<\/p>\n\n- Using the Registry Editor, rename the key
Desktop<\/code> to Desktop.old<\/code><\/li>\n- Exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n
- Press Ctrl<\/kbd> + Shift<\/kbd> + Esc<\/kbd> to open Task Manager.<\/li>\n
- From the File menu, click Run.<\/li>\n
- Type
explorer.exe<\/code> and press Enter.<\/li>\n- Customize the desktop icons layout as you want.<\/li>\n
- Log off and log back in to check if the icon positions are retained.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 key, which kept Windows from … Read more<\/a><\/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":[441],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/save-and-restore-desktop-icon-layout\/","url_meta":{"origin":984,"position":0},"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 "Utilities"","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":24029,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/desktop-icons-spacing-messed-up-fix\/","url_meta":{"origin":984,"position":1},"title":"[Fix] Desktop Icons Spacing is Messed Up in Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"May 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Occasionally, your desktop icons may be spaced out too far or very close to each other in Windows. The desktop icon spacing may sometimes be messed up after installing a video driver update. In some cases, the vertical spacing may be fine, but the horizontal spacing may be messed up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"desktop icon spacing incorrect","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/desktop-icons-widely-spaced.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/desktop-icons-widely-spaced.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/desktop-icons-widely-spaced.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26716,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/duplicate-desktop-icons-in-windows\/","url_meta":{"origin":984,"position":2},"title":"Fix for Duplicate Desktop Icons in Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"May 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Every time when you place a file or a shortcut on your Desktop, you may get 2 identical icons. If one icon is deleted, the other icon will also be removed if you refresh the Desktop. The path for both icons would be the same. You may be wondering what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3607,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/undo-desktop-icons-auto-arrange-restart-explorer-exe\/","url_meta":{"origin":984,"position":3},"title":"How to Undo Desktop Icons Auto Arrange? [Quick Tip]","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you'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. Desktop icons layout remains in the memory until you initiate a logoff. During user account logoff or when restarting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1075,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-recycle-bin-icon-not-refresh-custom-icons-windows-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":984,"position":4},"title":"[Fix] Recycle Bin Icon Does Not Refresh Correctly","author":"Ramesh","date":"August 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"When you use a custom icon (.ico) file to customize the Recycle Bin Empty & Full icons manually or via a desktop theme, the Recycle Bin icon may not update or refresh correctly when emptying the Recycle Bin or when you add items to it. In some cases, the issue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"recycle bin does not refresh","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/w7-rbin-custicon-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":142,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-overlapping-icon-windows-7-vista\/","url_meta":{"origin":984,"position":5},"title":"Desktop Icons Covered with White Boxes or Black Squares","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a mysterious case of the icon overlap problem, which the screenshot below explains perfectly. You can see the original icon for shortcuts is overlapped by a generic white overlay (shown for unknown file types). An incorrect icon overlay setting is causing the problem. As the issue is seen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"shortcuts covered by white icon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/icon-overlap-shellicons-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/icon-overlap-shellicons-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/icon-overlap-shellicons-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","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=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"exit](\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/exit-expl-w10.png\")
<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\nThe above applies to Windows 8 and Windows 10. For more information on restarting the Explorer shell, visit:<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/desktop-layout-1.png\")
<\/li>\n