[FIXED]Desktop icons keep rearranging after monitor sleep

[maybethisnamewillwork]

Icons on the desktop keep rearranging every time monitor goes to sleep, it only happens when I have scaling applied (125%, 150%... etc.)

When I don't have scaling there's no issue.

[Tiwaz]

8 minutes ago, maybethisnamewillwork said:

Icons on the desktop keep rearranging every time monitor goes to sleep, it only happens when I have scaling applied (125%, 150%... etc.)

When I don't have scaling there's no issue.

for me this happens whenever windows crashes or randomly at some start ups. ITs even more annying when there spots on the desktop that suddenly wont allow putting an icon on anymore and just randomzie the position by itself. The new Windows 10 update is just so buggy

[maybethisnamewillwork]

17 minutes ago, Tiwaz said:

for me this happens whenever windows crashes or randomly at some start ups. ITs even more annying when there spots on the desktop that suddenly wont allow putting an icon on anymore and just randomzie the position by itself. The new Windows 10 update is just so buggy

For me this issue has been with every Windows 10 build so far, it's quite similar when you change resolution or proceed a display driver update.

I still use some older version (Build 14393), I did try the Creators update, but less surprisingly it had even more issues so I reverted it.

[Tiwaz]

3 minutes ago, maybethisnamewillwork said:

For me this issue has been with every Windows 10 build so far, it's quite similar when you change resolution or proceed a display driver update.

I still use some older version (Build 14393), I did try the Creators update, but less surprisingly it had even more issues so I reverted it.

i also had this problem previously as well, but it wasnt as frequent

[maybethisnamewillwork]

After a bit of researching I figured out that the issue lies how Windows handles the DisplayPort interface.
Whenever the monitor powers off and the DisplayPort DDC link disconnects, Windows switches to "simulated" monitor with a default resolution. In my case this default resolution was set to some odd value; therefore rearranging every icon on the desktop to the upper left corner.
 

To find out what exactly the "simulated" monitor is, I turned off the monitor and used SysInternals Process Monitor to find out what registry path Windows was accessing.

Found the last path Windows accessed before the monitor powers on again, and in my case it was:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration\ACI28A3149242_27_07DF_9F^9B5BB1CAE0B279C3217B8F8B0ADC8E00
 

Under that path was a tree called "00" with two keys which are:
PrimSurfSize.cx
PrimSurfSize.cy
 

Under "00" was another branch also called "00" with five keys which are:
ActiveSize.cx
ActiveSize.cy
DwmClipBox.right
PrimSurfSize.cx
PrimSurfSize.cy
 

These keys above were set to values either 1920 or 1080, so it seemed that Windows was setting the resolution to 1920x180 while the monitor powers off (don't know why).

I changed each 1920 value to 3840, 1080 to 2160, and the problem was solved.

[Matt_Lu]

I came here looking for a solution to this annoying icon sorting issue but it seems there isn't any and what has been suggested are still workarounds.

For me this issue happened especially when waking from sleep mode, all my icons would be scrambled on a single monitor. Also, if I would switch off my monitors, my windows and icons would automatically move to the active monitor and at times completely mess up my icon's locations.

I tried multiple Windows and driver settings even registry mods, with no solution. I assume that it may be because I have a generic type of gpu on the computer, nothing fancy.

 

The only thing that worked for me was a cheap hardware gizmo:

Look up: "monitor detect killer".
Now turning the monitors on and off causes no change at all on the windows or icons configuration and it also works when waking up from sleep mode.

Good luck.