Auto arrange always checked on startup 1

[erniehogan]

On Windows XP Pro when right clicking on the desktop, then clicking on "Arrange Icons By" the options displayed include "Auto Arrange". I turn off this option by removing the check mark in its box. However, whenever windows is started or restarted this box is always checked. I want my desktop icons to remain where I put them not where windows puts them. Can anyone tell me how to keep it unchecked on startup?

 

[bcastner]

Open notepad and copy/paste the below into a file to be saved as fix_icons.reg :

***** start copy/paste below this line
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000

***** end copy/paste above this line

Double click to merge fix_icons.reg with your registry. Reboot.

Now right-click the desktop, Arrange icons by and make these settings changes:

Show in Groups (unselected)
Auto arange (unselected)
Align to grid (selected)
--------------------------------
Show Desktop Items (selected)
Lock Web Items on Desktop (selected)

Note that there are some programs that will interfere with your ability to preserve these settings. For example, the Western Digital control center for its external hard disk drives: "The version of the Media Center driver located on your installation CD may cause an unwanted rearrangement of your desktop icons in Windows XP each time you boot your computer. The driver in the attached zip file is designed to correct this issue."

 

[erniehogan]

Bill,

Thank you, as usual, your advice was correct and enabled me to get rid of another annoyance.

 

[bcastner]

Glad you got it sorted. While it does not matter, I mistakenly entered the same line twice:

***** start copy/paste below this line
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000

***** end copy/paste above this line