Why does the vertical space between desktop icons change when I toggle the auto hide property of the taskbar?

I recently changed the auto-hide property of of my taskbar from "On" to "Off". Doing so caused all the icons on my desktop to get rearranged. The icons were rearranged in such a way as to clear out the bottom-most row.

Even with the bottom-most clearded out, if I toggle the taskbar between "Auto Hide On" and "Auto Hide Off" the vertical space between desktop icons changes a little. It appears that when in the "Off" state the vertical space between each row of icons is smaller. When the state is "On" the vertical space between each row of icons is greater.

Can someone explain to me what is happening and why?

Michael Riley - AKA Gunny

Posted 2013-02-02T20:01:58.927

Reputation: 251

Answers

Windows does this because you have "Align icons to Grid" turned on.

You can toggle it by

Right-clicking anywhere on the Desktop
XP: Arrange Icons by -> Align to Grid
Vista+: View -> Align icons to grid.

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2013-02-02T20:01:58.927

Reputation: 103 763

I had no idea about that... thanks. Your answer lead me to a nice article about advanced desktop settings.

– Michael Riley - AKA Gunny – 2013-02-02T21:53:02.033