New desktop icons - force location

[ms310]

Hello - not a Rainmeter topic (apologies if this is not the place for this).

I have cleaned my desktop of icons. I sometimes use the desktop to hold files temporarily. They immediately rush to the upper left corner of the screen - right behind my weather Rainmeter gadget.

Does anyone know of a slick, easy way to force new icons to a specific location on the screen?

[eclectic-tech]

Hm... That is controlled by Windows.

An alternative to getting rid of your desktop items, would be to choose not to show any; right-click the desktop and under "View", uncheck "Show desktop icons". Now nothing will appear on your desktop except Rainmeter items.

To have quick access to desktop items, I add a "Toolbar" to the "Taskbar" that points to my Desktop folder. Right-click the taskbar and select "Toolbars", then "Desktop" or "New toolbar..." and select the Desktop folder.

Then I simply open that list from the taskbar toolbar to see a list of all my desktop items.

It would look like this:

desktoptoolbar.png

This is one way to have a clean desktop but still have quick access to Desktop items.

[Brian]

Does anyone know of a slick, easy way to force new icons to a specific location on the screen?

Slick, easy way? .... No.

Rough, hard way? .... Possibly. Windows stores this information in the Registry. They call these registry keys "shellbags", and they store all the details used by Explorer.

Here is a link with all the details: http://www.williballenthin.com/forensics/shellbags/

[In theory] You could read the proper "ItemPos..." from the first shell bag desktop key, then search that key for the right file. The tricky part will be to modify the "location" (in hex) of the file in that key....and then make sure Windows updates the shell (explorer) with the new information. It might not update unless Explorer.exe is restarted, or possibly a logout/login.

As you can see, it's quite a convoluted set of steps required to do this with a lot of "unknowns". [/Theory]

I would suggest to not show them as eclectic-tech suggested above.

-Brian

[SilverAzide]

Does anyone know of a slick, easy way to force new icons to a specific location on the screen?

Yes. It's called Fences, by Stardock. You can create an area on your screen (called a "fence") and have all new icons go there automatically. Highly recommended.

[eclectic-tech]

Yes. It's called Fences, by Stardock. You can create an area on your screen (called a "fence") and have all new icons go there automatically. Highly recommended.

Yeah, forgot all about StarDock Fences, it is also an option