XP desktop icons won't move

I found this link from another forum site. It's for Win95/Win98SE/WinMe but I think will work as well in WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q137069

Try these as well:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Interface\{0000010E-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\NumMethods

SHOULD BE: unnamed Value of type REG_SZ which is set to 12.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Interface\{0000010E-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\ProxyStubClsid

SHOULD BE: unnamed Value of type REG_SZ which is set to {0000030C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Interface\{0000010E-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\ProxyStubClsid32

SHOULD BE: unnamed Value of type REG_SZ which is set to {00000320-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

Reboot and you should be good to go.

Hi

Microsoft has this on unmovable icons:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;830071

I've never heard of windows not being able to be moved. Can you access the window control menu by pressing ALT+Spacebar, then use the arrow keys to select 'Move', press enter, use the arrow keys to move an outline of the window, then press enter to position the window in the outline?

Is your monitor and graphics adapter set up correctly? Check Device Manager and see if there are any exclamation marks or red marks on these devices.

Also check you have the most up to date drivers for your monitor and your graphics card. Make sure your copy of Windows is fully up to date by visiting Windows Update.

Good luck

I know this may seem silly but I have had a similar problem. When LF clickint items is acts like it is shooting blanks. The RT click works as it is supposed to. And double clicking with the left mouse button works fine.

Try using another mouse it may be that the Left click button is bad on the mouse or it could have a mouse driver problem as with say an optical mouse.

The machine I had this problem with had no more problems after replacing the mouse.

Hope this helps.

A couple of days ago I made a couple of modest changes in appearance of my desktop icons. After hitting OK I found they had all moved to the left corner of the screen. This often happened when I altered icons in the past and though it was a nuisance, I simply had to drag them back manually. But this time they refused to be dragged. I started googling for an answer. All I could find was stuff I have known about desktop properties for years. I came across several people who had a similar problem with icons and experienced similar frustration being told to "right click the desktop...". The person above suggested getting rid of Intellimouse 8.0 and I tried this since my mouse has been refusing to scroll in ie8, though it scrolled fine in Outlook and Office 2007, but it didn't help. I had also been getting 5-10 second freezes when I left-clicked at all quickly on icons and within programs - though I discovered that If I did a "threekey" (rhymes with freaky) and then simply x'd out TM that the freeze was ended.

This evening I googled "unfreezing my desktop icons" and found a Yahoo response that suggested I needed to bring up Task Manager and "delete explorer.exe" and then reboot. It didn't mention doing this from the "Processes" tab but I assumed this must be what was meant. I braved the warning from Microsoft , deleted explorer.exe, did the reboot, and I am now able to move icons at will and can scroll through ie8. I had to do the reboot mechanically since deleting explorer.exe eliminated my Start Menu - which might be a shock to new users.

So I was all happy for a day. But the next night the problem returned. I tried deleting explorer.exe and restarting but no help. Went to bed in a bad mood. Got up the next day and thought maybe it was a startup problem. Tried Start/Run/msconfig and told it to start up with all drivers and services. I had been using a selective startup while trying to isolate the culprit. Would you believe? After waiting what seemed like hours for the restart to finish I was pleasantly surprised to find I could again control my desktop icons and use my scroll wheel in IE8.