Saving and Restoring Icon locations

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brad Ashforth
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B

Brad Ashforth

When XP loads the desktop icons "usually" reappear in the same location as
where I last put them. Where is this information stored? I'm assuming
somewhere in the registry? Isn't it possible to back up a registry key such
that in the event the icon locations "move" for some reason or another I can
simply reload a .reg file?
 
i believe that they are sotred in your system 32 folder. you can do an
advanced search for .ico files and include hidden folders.
 
There are third party utilities with which you can save & restore the icon
layout - winxp doesnt have its own
 
I wanted to clarify my question. I am not looking for .ico files to use as
shortcut icons.

If I create a new shortcut on my desktop and then drag it to a specific
location on my desktop, that icon has an x/y coordinate location stored
somewhere ... because when I restart the O/S the icon/shortcut (usually)
reappears in the same location that I moved it to. However, occasionally (due
to errs, or whatever) the icon/shortcut loads in a different location. Since
Windows is supposed to allow us to work the way we want to work, having to
manually move desktop icons/shortcuts back to where I had wanted them in the
first place is a waste of time and effort.

There appear to be software applications out there that claim to support
this feature. As a developer I'd prefer to do it myself ... I just need to
know where Windows stores this data. I searched Google and found some sites
claiming that you could back up specific registry keys, but each site was for
Win2K and earlier, and not all of the registry keys specified seem to exist
in XP (SP2).

Where does windows specify the x/y coordinate locations for desktop shortcuts?
 
did you try using align to grid?

Brad Ashforth said:
I wanted to clarify my question. I am not looking for .ico files to use as
shortcut icons.

If I create a new shortcut on my desktop and then drag it to a specific
location on my desktop, that icon has an x/y coordinate location stored
somewhere ... because when I restart the O/S the icon/shortcut (usually)
reappears in the same location that I moved it to. However, occasionally (due
to errs, or whatever) the icon/shortcut loads in a different location. Since
Windows is supposed to allow us to work the way we want to work, having to
manually move desktop icons/shortcuts back to where I had wanted them in the
first place is a waste of time and effort.

There appear to be software applications out there that claim to support
this feature. As a developer I'd prefer to do it myself ... I just need to
know where Windows stores this data. I searched Google and found some sites
claiming that you could back up specific registry keys, but each site was for
Win2K and earlier, and not all of the registry keys specified seem to exist
in XP (SP2).

Where does windows specify the x/y coordinate locations for desktop shortcuts?
Click to expand...
 
Hi DL. Thanks, but don't those 3rd party utilities have to get the layout
information from Windows somewhere? I had been expecting to find it somewhere
in HKEY_CURRENT_USER but can't seem to find it. I was hoping to write my own
utility. Does anyone know where this information is stored in Windows?

:)
 
Maybe they do, but I havent found any reference, so I use a third party
tool, it adds a option to My Computer rt click, from recollection the tool
was some small kb size
 
Brad said:
When XP loads the desktop icons "usually" reappear in the same
location as where I last put them. Where is this information stored?
I'm assuming somewhere in the registry? Isn't it possible to back up
a registry key such that in the event the icon locations "move" for
some reason or another I can simply reload a .reg file?
Click to expand...

A Google search gave me a Web page that had someone working with
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop. There
are other keys in that vicinity that look promising. I don't know if
this really controls the icon positions or not.

(The page I found was
http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t561116.html)
 
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