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May 25, 2007
Putting Your Icons in Their Place
Dear Larry,
I’m trying to move one of the icons on the left side of my
screen to the right. But each time I try to do this, it keeps snapping back to
the left side. What am I doing wrong?
D. V.
Dear D. V.,
This one’s easy. You have the “Auto Arrange” feature turned on
and that’s forcing your icons to align to the left side of the desktop. To turn
this feature off so that you can freely position your icons anywhere on the
screen, start by right-clicking a blank portion of the Windows desktop. Next,
click Arrange Icons By (or View if you’re a Windows Vista user), and then
uncheck the Auto Arrange option by clicking it. If you’re the anal compulsive
type (and, admit it, most of us are!), you can ensure your icons remain aligned
with each other by repeating this procedure, but at the last step, be certain
there’s a checkmark next to Auto Align (or, in Vista, Align to Grid). You can
even hide your desktop icons if you want using the appropriate option in that
same menu.
While we’re on the subject, I must say I applaud you for
customizing the placement of your icons to your liking. So many users, I find,
choose the Auto Arrange icons and allow their icons to congregate in a jumble on
the screen’s left edge. Think about it. That’s like sweeping everything on your
desk—your telephone, your stapler, your tape, your calculator, and all your
pictures—off to one side and creating an unorganized pile of debris.
So you’ve positioned your icons exactly where you want them
and now want to make sure nothing happens to cause these icons to get scrambled
up. There’s a free PC Magazine utility called WinTidy that you can use to help
keep icons in their place. If you’d like to run it, go to
www.accentoncomputers.com/wintidy.exe and click Open or Run when prompted.
A couple of columns ago, I mentioned the Windows Vista trick
you can use to make adjustments to desktop icon size. Click on a blank portion
of your Vista desktop, then hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and roll
your mouse wheel in either direction to select from among all the different icon
sizes. (Sorry, this won’t work under Windows XP.)
Now that you have your icons exactly where you want them, you
might desire a suitable backdrop. Scour through your gallery of pictures until
you find one you particularly like. Try right-clicking it and if you see an
option that reads “Set as Desktop Background,” then click it. If not,
right-click a blank portion of the Windows desktop, then click Properties,
Desktop (if you’re using XP), Personalize, Desktop Background, Pictures (if
you’re using Vista). Finally, browse for that favorite picture and select it. Of
course, you may then want to make minor adjustments to the position of your
icons so they’re not blocking critical portions of the background picture!
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
