Icon drift

[FoxyKaye]

OK, here's a weird one that's happened to me in both Jaguar and Panther:

No matter where I place my hard drive icons on the desktop, they tend to re-arrange themselves whenever I log out or reboot. I'll line them up in some sort of order, and the next time I log in they've snapped back to different locations on my desktop. Interestingly, they always snap back to the same spots.

Same thing with the icons for my root drive - I'll arrange them one way and next time I log in they re-arrange themselves (always to the same locations, but different from where I've put them).

Other than the fact that the icons seem to move back to the same locations each time, I haven't really figured out if there is any source of software interference that would be causing this effect. It happened to me with Jaguar installed on a Beige G3, and now Panther installed on a Blue/White.

Permissions are corrected, I reboot my system once a week, and everything else runs as normal and expected (no odd crashes or freeze-ups).

Has this happened to anyone else, and is it indicative of a bigger problem on my system, or should I just ignore the changes to my desktop and view my folder icons as a list? Basically, if it ain't broke don't fix it...

 

[varmit]

OK, here's a weird one that's happened to me in both Jaguar and Panther:

No matter where I place my hard drive icons on the desktop, they tend to re-arrange themselves whenever I log out or reboot. I'll line them up in some sort of order, and the next time I log in they've snapped back to different locations on my desktop. Interestingly, they always snap back to the same spots.

Same thing with the icons for my root drive - I'll arrange them one way and next time I log in they re-arrange themselves (always to the same locations, but different from where I've put them).

Other than the fact that the icons seem to move back to the same locations each time, I haven't really figured out if there is any source of software interference that would be causing this effect. It happened to me with Jaguar installed on a Beige G3, and now Panther installed on a Blue/White.

Permissions are corrected, I reboot my system once a week, and everything else runs as normal and expected (no odd crashes or freeze-ups).

Has this happened to anyone else, and is it indicative of a bigger problem on my system, or should I just ignore the changes to my desktop and view my folder icons as a list? Basically, if it ain't broke don't fix it...

It might be your screen resolution or display problem. What I mean is that I get this problem when I play a game that goes to 800X600 to play, but when I get out and go back to 1024X768, my icons can be in a different order, or lined up in two columns that would fit a 800X600 screen when they should fit my regular resolution just fine. Check your settings for your display under System Preferences.

It annoys me too, but I can deal because they just rearrange a little bit, yours seem to scatter all over the screen.

Also, try clicking anywhere on the desktop so that "Finder" is at the top left. Under "View" across to the top, choose "Show View Options". Make it so they "snap to grid" and you can arrange by name even.

 

[FoxyKaye]

It might be your screen resolution or display problem. What I mean is that I get this problem when I play a game that goes to 800X600 to play, but when I get out and go back to 1024X768, my icons can be in a different order, or lined up in two columns that would fit a 800X600 screen when they should fit my regular resolution just fine. Check your settings for your display under System Preferences.

It annoys me too, but I can deal because they just rearrange a little bit, yours seem to scatter all over the screen.

Also, try clicking anywhere on the desktop so that "Finder" is at the top left. Under "View" across to the top, choose "Show View Options". Make it so they "snap to grid" and you can arrange by name even.

Good advice. I tend to have my screen resolution really tweaked (high resolution, high refresh rate), and maybe this is just a by-product. I've also started playing lower resolution games (ie Baldur's Gate II) in windows instead of full screen.

Sounds like this is nothing to worry about though, which was my biggest concern. I'll also set my preferences to "snap to grid" but if it doesn't fix the drift I won't freak out that theres something deeply wrong with my OSX installation.

Thanks for setting my mind at ease!