Desktop icons moving and growing in size

We just purchased a MacBook Pro 15", 2.8GHz. I transferred all my files from my old MacBook via FireWire. Everything seems to work fine. The only problem I have is that my desktop items keep moving after I organize them the way I want them. And they also growing in size each time. I have only about 8 icons on my desktop and they take up almost the whole screen. Any suggestions to keep them from omving around? Thank you very much!

FGI_Webmaster: Close or minimize any open windows on your desktop so the desktop is exposed. Click once on it to make the Finder the active application. Place the tips of your thumb and forefinger on the middle of the trackpad and slowly move them closer together, then farther apart. See what happens to your desktop icons? This "pinch to zoom" trackpad gesture is probably responsible for the oversized icons on your desktop. I suspect you've been doing it accidentally without noticing. Getting used to the trackpad and avoiding having two fingers in contact with it when you don't mean to is the solution.

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All of a sudden my itunes wont come up when i hit the desktop icon. un and re installed many times, tried new users, it finally gave me "you need to reinstall sqmapi.dll " im a noob and i have know idea what that is or where i can get it. i cant open any

all of a sudden my itunes wont come up when i hit the desktop icon. un and re installed many times, tried new users, it finally gave me "you need to reinstall sqmapi.dll " im a noob and i have know idea what that is or where i can get it. i cant open any file or library that has anything to do with itunes except safari and quicktime are fine. im about to pull out whats left of my hair.

Okay, that's got one thing ruled out at least.
Can you check something for me, big? I'd like to see if iTunes launches with the Bonjour Service disabled.
In your Start menu, right-click Computer and select "Manage".
Expand "Services & Applications".
Open "Services". (Perhaps maximise the screen to better see what's going on.)
Right-click the Bonjour Service and select "Properties".
In the General tab, set the Startup type to "Disabled":
... and click OK.
Restart the PC and try launching iTunes. Does it open this time?

Desktop Icons moved to right side of screen and are stuck! Help please.

Can anyone please help me? My desktop icons have moved to the right side of my screen and I cannot move them. I have tried 'View Options', right clicking the desktop, 'Finder Preferences' and even a couple of terminal commands suggested in different forums. Nothing helps. In addition, I can't drag to desktop anymore. Anyone? Please. This has consumed me for almost a week now. Thanks.

rightclick on the desktop, click "show view options", choose any thing else as "snap to grid" in the "show icon preview" field.

Problem with desktop icon moving

Whenever I restart my computer, the "Macintosh HD" icon moves to become the bottom icon out of my list of icons, leaving the top right space empty where it usually should be. This has been happening for about a week after having my computer for three months.
Any idea why this is happening?
thanks.

Welcome To Discussions aburi!
Positioning Desktop icons, too close to the edge of the screen, will cause them to reposition themselves on restart.
Positioning them too close to each other, will cause this as well.
Depending on how many you have displayed, and the size of your screen, the Size of the icons, as well as the Text size & Label position can also factor in. Experiment with these settings.
My Desktop icons do not reposition themselves, and this is how I have my Desktop View Options set.
Icon size: 32 x 32
Text size: 12 pt
Label position: Bottom
I have none of the following options selected.
Snap to grid
Show item info
Show icon preview
Keep arranged by
A different configuration may work for you. Experiment with the options until you find something suitable.
Click on an open area of your Desktop.
From the Finder's Toolbar, position your cursor over "View" and pull down to "Show View Options", and click. Or use the Command + J keys.
ali b

Desktop icons disappear (and don't return) if switch halfway to a new desktop.

If I only swipe halfway to a new desktop (using the trackpad) and then let go to return to the original, my desktop icons disappear. To get them back i have to either killall finder, or switch to another desktop then switch back.

I have an error code 2324 after updating iTunes.. then the desktop icon disapeared and i can not sync my ipone or ipad...

All i get is the installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. this may indicate a problem with this package. the error code is 2324 .. I can not even uninstall itunes and start all over again.. i get the same error code. the desktop icon has disapeared and i am at a complete loss...

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.
The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down page in case one of them applies.
Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.
tt2

Desktop icons moving

Every now & then I notice they are in a new location on the desktop!! Also when I save something to the DT they either can't be seen or take a long time to appear. If I open a DT window I see them listed but I can't see them on the DT itself. Any ideas?

FGI_Webmaster: Close or minimize any open windows on your desktop so the desktop is exposed. Click once on it to make the Finder the active application. Place the tips of your thumb and forefinger on the middle of the trackpad and slowly move them closer together, then farther apart. See what happens to your desktop icons? This "pinch to zoom" trackpad gesture is probably responsible for the oversized icons on your desktop. I suspect you've been doing it accidentally without noticing. Getting used to the trackpad and avoiding having two fingers in contact with it when you don't mean to is the solution.

Desktop Icons Moved with cmd + Option + esc

We are hooked on Zuma (the game).
Sometimes, to get out of Zuma (full screen) quickly, we use the <cmd><opt><esc> combination, then press <esc>.
This often really messes up the icons on our desktops (moves them all to the top left quadrant, with no grid or other obvious alignment. Result is hap hazard and usually includes many overlaps.)
Another <cmd><opt><esc> and a forced "relaunch" of finder moves MOST of the icons back to where they were. The ones that aren't moved back ARE moved -- just not back to the original locations. The last time this happened, I had 8 or 9 icons on top of each other in the top-most, right-most icon location.
This is a new situation since upgrading to Leopard, and happens in both of our login accounts on the iMac.
Thanks

I experience the same reordering of my desktop when I plug in a USB thumb drive or insert a DVD. I normally keep files and folder in little clusters on the desktop, so having them moved is a bit annoying. I guess this is just one of those crazy things?

Chance Xfce desktop icon color and folder select background color

Hi there,
I'm using Xfce as my DE and I have installed this theme.
The problem is, because I have a black desktop background I can't see the icon's labels very well. I already tried to change the color with the file .gtkrc-2.0 in many ways, including the one in Arch Wiki, but the problem continues.
The other problem is, when I select a folder/file in Thunar the background is white, and again it's very difficult to distinguish between selected and not select folders/files. How can I change the background color? (This one I have no idea of how to make).
Thanks in advance.

Hello,
Try here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2493?viewlocale=en_US and here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/
Carolyn

Desktop icons moving on restart

I'm a recent (late, I know!) upgrade to Tiger on my G4 iBook. I've noticed a couple times recently that after restarting, some of my icons on my desktop are in a different place from where they were before restarting. One time, several of them ended up on the left side of the desktop when they were on the right before. Today, my HD was in the bottom right corner upon startup (as opposed to the usual upper right).
This isn't a huge problem, just a bit of annoyance in that I have to move the icons back. Any idea what's causing this and how to fix it?

I have read a number of posts complaining about this, and it has happened to me once or twice. It sure seems like a bug. I expect it will get fixed eventually. For now you can try this, which may or may not help,
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15779186#15779186
And you can leave feedback:
Apple - Mac OS X - Feedback
charlie

Desktop apps moved and General settings app moved

My 2 year old daughter loves the ipad and plays games, watches cartoons, etc. I set up restrictions under the general settings for her safety. Some how she or one of my family members moved or deleted some of the apps including general settings. How can I get my apps and general settings back? I scrolled and did not see the general settings app to reset desktop apps. Thanks in advance.

They can't be deleted, as they are native to iPad. If you have scrolled to additional pages on your iPad and still can't find them, you can use the search function to find them, or you can connect to your laptop and find them in iTunes and move them where you want. To find them using search, with your home screen open, hit the home button once and the search bar will appear. Type in the name of the app and it will bring it up.

Desktop icons moving around after ext moni - madness

1. MBP
2. SL
3. use MBP at a cafe
4. come back to home office - connect Dell 2407 via DVI connector
5. use MBP - notice icons "scale" in placement to much larger screen
6. next day
7. MBP fired up with no external monitor connection - icons are not where I left them, now a mixed up bunch ( a mess really )
Isnt there a way to lock these icons down so that CANT move regardless if any ext monitor is connected ? Shouldnt the OS be able to deal with this without issue ?

Don't know what variant of the MBP you have, but on my Late 2007 MacBook Pro 3,1 15", the F7 key toggles between spanning and mirrored mode. The internal may be mirroring the settings from the external.
Toggling between video modes with the keyboard has helped some people who had this issue. Again, not knowing your exact model I can't be sure which key toggles video mode but, if you have that function, it's a cheap and easy check.
Does the external monitor require a video adapter? Are you leaving the adapter attached the MBP when off the external display? If so, try removing the adapter.

Can't access desktop icons

Hello,
I'm having an intermittent problem with the desktop icons on my MacBook Pro. Occasionally, the desktop icons become inaccessible. I'll hover over them with the mouse and can't click on them. I'll also sometimes add a document to the desktop and it doesn't show up. Both of these problems can be solved by clicking on the "desktop icon view" and changing the size of the icons briefly. I hate having to do this so often. Can anyone help with this?
Thank you!
Erin

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
One thing to try would be to repair your disk. You will have to boot from your install disc and navigate to Disk Utility on the install disc. The select your hard drive by brand name and go to the First Aid Tab and click on the "Repair Disk" button. Repeat until there is nothing left to repair.
If you get errors you cannot repair, then you will need a more powerful utility such as Disk Warrior to repair your drive.
You could also try creating a new user account and see if the problem is there in it.
You could also try reinstalling the OS, but don't do this until any errors reported by Disk Utility are repaired.
Good luck!

Moving desktop icons with Yoga screen rotation and Windows 8

I have a Yoga 11s. I have a bunch of desktop icon shortcuts and folders on my desktop as I rarely use the Windows 8 "tiles." Unfortunately, when using the Yoga as a tablet, whenever the screen rotates, all my desktop shortcuts and folders move around. Is there any way to get them to stay in place in Windows 8? I realize that when one rotates the tablet around that the icons have to move around to accommodate the screen rotation, but when I rotate the screen back to the horizontal position, they don't return to the position they were in.
Thanks!

I did get a potential solution over on a Windows 8 forum. Unfortunately the solution doesn't stop the migration of the icons. It only restores them to their original position with a few mouse clicks. I have yet to find a solution that keeps the icons from moving in the first place.
I downloaded a program called Iconoid. When you first run the program, a little windows pops up. You click on the positions tab, then put the dot in the selection that says "use relative positions for all resolutions." You then hit the "save icon positions (relative)" button and now the program remembers where all of your icons are.
When you rotate the screen and all your icons get messed up, you open Iconoid (in systray for me), go to that same "positions" tab, then hit the "restore icon positions now." That moves all the icons back to where they were. You just have to make sure that if you change your icons on your desktop a lot, that you hit that "save icon positions (relative) button once in a while so the program gets updated icon positions.

How do I make the clickpad cause the size of my desktop icons to change?

As I work through the day, something I do to the clickpad seems to cause my desktop icons to suddenly grow larger, or shrink smaller. I have noticed that the icon change happens as I sweep my regular clickpad finger across the clickpad. I'm not sure what I'm doing with the other hand at the same time, but I seem to be touching the clickpad's left button area at least part of the time. The sudden increase in size of icons causes them to rearrange themselves into an unfamiliar pattern, i.e. a mess. So I then must take time to rearrange about 40 icons, thereby becoming vastly less efficient with a computer than I would be if using pencil and paper. I am not able to reproduce this action at will; it only happens while I'm working normally well, concentrating on other things.
If any of you know exactly how this occurs, and what the feature is called, please tell me the name and, much more importantly, please tell me how I can stop this from occurring. I've searched HP's instructions for the clickpad, searched for a newer driver, and searched the forums to no avail. The notebook computer is a Pavilion DV7-4280us (a quick-ship model). The offending clickpad is, apparently, being beta tested on unsuspecting consumers who, choose to believe the HP tech support and sales folks instead of the numerous previous consumers who have complained about these clickpads in customer reviews. Overall, this computer really is terrific; but I sure could use some help to prevent these undesirable scramblings of my desktop icons that suddenly outgrow the space allocated to them. Thanks in advance for your help.

Firefox now always stores the old session which you can access by going to the History menu and selecting "Restore Previous Session".
If you always open the last set of tabs, an alternative approach is this:
# In the Firefox menu select Preferences to open the Preferences window
# Go to the General panel
# Change the setting "When Firefox starts" to "Show my windows and tabs from last time"
If you have it set to the above but it is not remembering the tabs, the file that stores details of sessions may be corrupt.
# Open your profile folder, for details of how to find it see https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Profiles
# Close Firefox
# In the profile folder delete sessionstore.js
That file will be recreated when you next start Firefox

Desktop icons moving and growing in size

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