How to fix the position of icons on the Windows 11 desktop

The layout of icons on your Windows 11 desktop can sometimes get messy when you restart the system, or download a new application and add its shortcut to the home screen. This is because a built-in feature called Auto Arrange Icons is enabled by default.

This article will show you how to turn off the Auto Arrange Icons feature, and keep application icons fixed on your Windows 11 desktop.

Lock the position of icons on the desktop

First, right-click anywhere on the desktop. A context menu will appear. Hover your mouse pointer over the “View” at the top of the menu.

A sub-menu will immediately appear, displaying several different icon management options. The option we are interested in here is “Auto Arrange Icons“. As the name suggests, this feature allows Windows to automatically arrange the icons on your desktop. To disable this option, simply click to untick it to the left of it.

Alternatively, you can also tap to activate the “Align Icons to Grid, if you each row and column of icons are aligned neatly and neatly.

Some other reasons to keep in mind

Disabling the Auto Arrange Icons option will prevent Windows from randomly rearranging desktop icons. However, there are also some other cases where the icons on your desktop may be shuffled even if you have disabled Auto Arrange Icons.

For example, if you change the screen resolution, the icons on the desktop can sometimes be scattered. Unfortunately, there is no concrete way to prevent that. You will have to manually rearrange everything!