How do I keep my desktop icons together (without empty spaces) in Windows 7?

1

I'm familiar with the 'Align to Grid' feature when right-clicking an empty space on the desktop- that's not what I'm asking for. I want the desktop to not allow empty spaces and 'orphan' icons. When an icon is moved out of the grid, all the icons below it should move up automatically to fill the empty space. New icons should automatically be placed at the end of the column.

How can I set that up? This computer, running Windows 7 used to do that by default, but no longer does.

What I'm trying to set up

user922954

Posted 2018-07-13T23:33:07.650

Reputation: 13

You have set your icons to be sorted by grid, if you want the folder in a different spot, move it there (and it will stay there) until you sort your icons again – Ramhound – 2018-07-13T23:39:23.187

No. I want the desktop to NOT allow me to just drop icons anywhere on the desktop. – user922954 – 2018-07-14T00:58:50.080

So you want your icons not to be moved? Even if you use the other option you can still chnage the order. Use a third-party application. No suggestions but they do exist – Ramhound – 2018-07-14T01:32:23.570

Answers

1

If you right-click on the empty desktop area, then go to "View", then select "Auto arrange icons", does that fix it for you?

pombiki

Posted 2018-07-13T23:33:07.650

Reputation: 36

No, that just changes the order of my icons, which I don't want. I want all the icons in the column to 'move up' and fill the empty space when I move or delete an icon. Instead, all the other icons just stay where they are, leaving an empty space where the moved/deleted icon used to be. – user922954 – 2018-07-14T00:57:22.747

It may change the order of the icons initially, but then you can move it to the order that you want – pombiki – 2018-07-14T01:14:48.840

Asked: 2018-07-13T23:33:07.650

Viewed: 193 times

Active: 2018-07-14T00:08:07.820