How to Make Phantom Desktop Icon Spaces Go Away?

[legaleye3000]

On my desktop, I have some icons in a row but its as if there is an icon in the row of icons but its blank space. I cannot put any icon in this space. Any idea how to fix this? I hope I make sense... Thanks!

 

[MC6800]

You could first check what files are actually there by viewing the Desktop folder in a Finder window in list mode. If there are no phantom files appearing there, you could try setting your desktop (using Command-J) to sort by name (setting the sort back to "None" will restore any manual arrangement).