Hi,

I'm having problems with my PC at home... For some reason, when I right click on the desktop and try to arrange them by anything, they stay in the same place. I don't have active desktop on (that I can see)... Could someone somewhere please help me as there is no apparent reason for this!

Thanks in advance.

There are some forms of spyware /virii that can affect the icons on the desktop, but first check the following:

When you right click on the desktop and choose Arrange Icons, in the drop down menu the following are ticked and nothing else:

Align to grid

Show Desktop Icons [obviously, you may think!!!]

If anything else has a tick try removing it.

Thanks for the advice but it hasn't worked... Is there something else I can try?

Have a look in Desktop settings:

Right click on your desktop choose properties,

Click the Desktop tab, click the web tab, click Customize Desktop.

Check there are no ticks.


duh All that only applies if it's XP duh

Sally

This is entirely a long shot but I was doing some research trying to come up with ideas and I came across a guy who had had exactly the same symptoms that you describe. Turned out he had a wireless mouse and the batteries were running low. Wasn't affecting anything else he said except trying to move the icons. He changed the batteries et voila. Moveable icons.

I find it hard to believe but then again I suppose I've seen odder things.

Oooh, thanks, I'll try that! It is a wireless mouse! I'll try that this evening! Thanks very much.

Hi, Managed to get onto the computer in question and plugged in wired mouse - no change in the icons, then tried all the things you suggested in properties and on right-clicking etc... nothing works. Do you think this could be a virus then? If so, why is Norton Antivirus 2004 (recently renewed subscription) not picking it up? What can I do? Live update has been run...

Please help me, it's driving me crazy. Thanks in advance.

My instinct is that it is some damage to your Windows installation but you'd better eliminate the other possibilities.

Norton should catch any virus but run an on line scan from HERE just to be sure.

But Norton won't necessarily catch spyware. So download, update and then run AdAware SE from HERE. You can let it remove everything it finds.

Run both and see what they catch and then see if it makes a difference. Then come back & tell us.

Well I already have Adaware SE and Spybot on the PC which I run once a week at least - they've got all the updates available too. I ran them yesterday before I saw this post actually. A couple of things were found and removed and now the system is clear but the icons are still the same. It's so strange. I'm at work and haven't had a chance to try that virus scan you just suggested so I shall do that later and then post. Thanks again!! duh

Hi Sally, do you have the standard desktop theme, or one of your own?

If so try reverting to the standard desktop, settings etc.

It's just a standard desktop... Azul... It's not really that important I guess... was just something that was bothering me...

Thanks everyone for your help... If you can think of any other ideas I'd be eternally grateful!!