macbook external display screws up my desktop icons

[musiqzuki]

So when I plug in the mini DVI display-port to my Macbook, my external monitor, which is my main screen, shows all the desktop icons properly.

When I unplug the minidisplay port, and just use my Macbook solo. My desktop icons are all messed up, kinda like stacked on top of each other. Is there anyway to prevent this? Not only that, my trackpad becomes unable to click on the desktop sometimes too weird.

Am I doing something wrong? When I don't want to use the external monitor, I just unplug the mini display-port right?

help appreciated!

 

[spinnerlys]

Go to the Desktop > Show View Options (CMD + J) > Arrange by: Snap to Grid (or sort by name, date, size, ... can also be chosen).

Does that help you?

 

[musiqzuki]

my options were already set to snap to grid, sometimes when i unplug my the mini display port, the macbook icons get messed up, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Scottsdale]

my options were already set to snap to grid, sometimes when i unplug my the mini display port, the macbook icons get messed up, sometimes it doesn't.

I get a similar but different problem. When I plug in my mini display port to DVI monitor, my finder opens in proper position. When I open finder without the DVI monitor hooked up, finder opens all the way to the right of the screen. I have to drag from the very left most side of the window (which is all the way to right of screen) and drag into proper place. A real pain in the but. I don't get it myself.

 

[musiqzuki]

yeah that happens to me sometimes. really weird. i really know why, cuz sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't

 

[erstwhilepo]

Not just an Apple thing. At work, I use a dell laptop on a docking station (It kills me to use a Dell, I have no choice - except to quit - which would be extreme). The icons are arranged neatly on the external display via dock. When I eject the PC and bring it home, the icons are all over the place in an unusual configuration on the notebook itself. I think the external display is really the alter ego of the computer.

 

[lucoweb]

Not just an Apple thing. At work, I use a dell laptop on a docking station (It kills me to use a Dell, I have no choice - except to quit - which would be extreme). The icons are arranged neatly on the external display via dock. When I eject the PC and bring it home, the icons are all over the place in an unusual configuration on the notebook itself. I think the external display is really the alter ego of the computer.

sorry. after Steve Jobs ditching Windows every chance he gets, this "Not just an Apple thing" won't fly. the thing is: even in version 10.6, Apple's OS still has major usability flaws.

like when you mac+tab to a minimised window and it just won't restore - you have to click it yourself. or like closing the last window but finding the program is still running (this one is especially annoying in iTunes). or even maximising a window to find you can still move it around, and when you restore and maximise it again, it retains the position/size you set when it was supposedly "maximised".

and of course the fact that Windows has been designed with accessibility in mind ever since its most prehistoric antecessors, while OS X has only had a timid improvement towards it in its latest versions.

(and I simply miss the tree structure. I still don't understand why OS X doesn't have it.)

anyways, I'm no MS evangelist, I'm simply pointing out some stuff I think is wrong with OS X - in hopes that it'll get fixed.

bottom line: this icon thingie is a bug and should have been fixed already. end of story.

epilogue: these annoying other bugs I mentioned get fixed too, and I die happy.

 

[spinnerlys]

sorry. after Steve Jobs ditching Windows every chance he gets, this "Not just an Apple thing" won't fly. the thing is: even in version 10.6, Apple's OS still has major usability flaws.

like when you mac+tab to a minimised window and it just won't restore - you have to click it yourself. or like closing the last window but finding the program is still running (this one is especially annoying in iTunes). or even maximising a window to find you can still move it around, and when you restore and maximise it again, it retains the position/size you set when it was supposedly "maximised".

and of course the fact that Windows has been designed with accessibility in mind ever since its most prehistoric antecessors, while OS X has only had a timid improvement towards it in its latest versions.

(and I simply miss the tree structure. I still don't understand why OS X doesn't have it.)

anyways, I'm no MS evangelist, I'm simply pointing out some stuff I think is wrong with OS X - in hopes that it'll get fixed.

bottom line: this icon thingie is a bug and should have been fixed already. end of story.

epilogue: these annoying other bugs I mentioned get fixed too, and I die happy.

Here's your chance to "open" Apple's eyes, instead of necropostig here, which can be considered trolling.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

 

[lucoweb]

Here's your chance to "open" Apple's eyes, instead of necropostig here, which can be considered trolling.

so speaking one's mind is considered necroposting now? or trolling? what happens if I start blabbering about <irony>how wonderful my life is now that Apple is in the world? </irony>

geez.

anyway... thanks for the link. a couple years back I tried submitting ideas for iPod (it was still the clickwheel era) but their website labeled it "unsolicited feedback", which I found quite disencouraging.

PS.: for what's worth, I have a MBP with backlit keyboard - and I love it.