How to fix desktop icons on reboot

[Guest]

[brucewilsonpa]

   I'm pretty familiar with Vista but for some reason on my OQO everytime it reboots it rearranges my carefully arranged icons to something that seems random -- I've tried with and without align to grid -- if I use the auto arrange I get an arrgt I don't like.  Can anyone help me see what I'm doing that causes this?

Thanks!

[Ronc]

I guess I was expecting this to happen since before Vista I was using Win98, which would shuffle my desktop icons every time I went into and out of safe mode.  When Vista started doing it also, I discovered the same program still solves the problem: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/iconrestore.html .  Before clicking "save desktop icon layout", just be sure to set your dpi size and grid spacing first.  After that, if you or windows mixes up your icons you just click "restore icon desktop layout" to restore the icons whose positions you saved.  If you've added a few icons without a new save they may appear on top of your saved icons but you can temporarily move them off the desktop before restoring or just start moving the icons that look confusing.

[sandydlc]

I would also recommend that once you are in the default resolution, AND you've arranged your icons in your preferred order, do a right-click and "refresh".

Then, the next time your reboot, the icons should remain static.  Windows will remember that last good boot and the position of your icons at that time.  If you crash or shut down unexpectedly, it will revert to that setup/position.

If you're like me and run your OQO for days and only hibernate when not using, it could be several days/weeks between reboots and then you're left wondering what happened if your system crashes.

[Ronc]

If you're like me and run your OQO for days and only hibernate when not using, it could be several days/weeks between reboots and then you're left wondering what happened if your system crashes.

"several days/weeks between reboots" what's your secret? I'm currently in the several reboots/day area...especially since I installed SP1 on July 11th.

[mjh]

I suggest it may be Vista vs XP.  I run XP and also only hibernate when not being used.  I have never had to reboot except when required for some software upgrade, which can easily be several weeks to a month.

[Ronc]

I suggest it may be Vista vs XP. 

sandydlc has the same Vista setup as I. (Check our sigs.)

[kyone]

Most of the time when my OQO is sitting on my desk with power supply being used as a desktop replacement I will put it into standby at the end of the day before I go to bed. If I have to travel for a couple of hours I might decide to hibernate.  I will reboot about once or twice a week for a particular reason... But I don't have SP1 installed yet and I intend on doing so in a couple of days.

Ronc would you uninstall SP1 if you could ?  Do you notice any benefits ?

[Ronc]

Ronc would you uninstall SP1 if you could ?  Do you notice any benefits ?

I started a free MS SP1 support request.  So far they helped me find the uninstall link. Apparently it is in the "installed updates" section of "Programs and Features" which is the same as the "installed updates" section of Windows Update. I didn't even look there because I used the SP1 $3.50 DVD instead of WU.  Also it is not even called "SP1" but is identified as an "Service Pack for MS Windows (KB936330).   I have not yet tried to use it (click on uninstall) because I'm waiting to hear back from them after sending them a bunch of info they asked for and also giving them a long list of perceived problems that may have been caused by SP1, including frequent freezes (once or 3x per day) which require a forced shutdown via the power button to recover.  And no, there have definitely been no discernible improvements of any kind!  I have noticed slightly slower file transfers over usb to my mp3 player.  Frankly, I'm surprised that there hasn't been much activity on any SP1 thread since the new driver allowed SP1 to show up on WU. sandydlc posted in the SP1 thread on July 3rd:
"I noticed that the OQO now has a bit more of a delay coming out of hibernation but I'm still testing to see if I notice a performance increase."

[sandydlc]

Yes - I can still say that my OQO is coming out of hibernation much slower after installing SP1.  I've been *really* busy at work and haven't had time to investigate.  It's not too much of a problem because my overall performance hasn't suffered (though I haven't really noticed a huge improvement either).

Ronc - would you know where to start to determine why coming out of hibernation would have slowed down?  At one point I did find that there was a process/driver that Vista found was preventing my OQO from coming out of hibernation quickly (I think it was one of the Tablet drivers), but now I can't remember where I found it.  Troubleshooting on the run is not a good thing!   

I think I'll probably just reinstall the tablet drivers for Vista from the OQO site just in case one of them might have gotten corrupted along the way.  I'll post when I have any new results.  But in the meantime - if you know of a way to find out why this could be happening, I could use the extra ideas/brain-power!  Thanks!

Sandy

[Ronc]

But in the meantime - if you know of a way to find out why this could be happening, I could use the extra ideas/brainpower!  Thanks!

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I've had numerous problems since installing SP1 (from Microsoft's $3.50 DVD).  Sounds like you're in much better shape than I.  I usually use sleep instead of hibernate but I did a few tests just now to let you known how it works for me.  When resuming it takes about 30 seconds to see the progress bar be replaced by the desktop background and another 30 seconds to be able to get back on Sprint.  It may have been a little faster before SP1 but I can't recall for sure.

I'm surprised to hear that Vista actually gave you some useful information.  In my case when something stops working right I try a few routine maintenance things like reboot, disk cleanup, chkdsk, sfc /scannow; (defrag is on a weekly schedule.) I haven't tried using the recovery DVD but it's been 14 months since I received the OQO so maybe it's about time. I noticed from your "will not boot" thread that you started with a fresh install on May 9th.  Perhaps that's why you're having good luck with SP1 where "good luck" is defined as "created few problems".

[kyone]

I'm going to do some time tests with my OQO on the issues discussed.
I will install SP1 tonight (Aust time).
This will be my second time.  My first was from a 400M download from MS and run manually.  I had problems with any new USB device not being recognised.  After many attempts to fix the problem (this was a relatively common problem from as far back as XP days but the solutions offered did not work) I then uninstalled the SP.
This time I will be using windows update.

[kyone]

Ok SP1 installed again.  This time my USB works fine.  The start and stop times of all are about the same (Hibernate, standby and cold boot) some a little quicker some a little slower.  Not sure if the install reenabled some things I have disabled for tweaking purposes.  But all in all it all seems fine.  Time might show up a few issues.

I think there is also less fan noise... subjective