(Updated to include Windows 7 solution)
We’ve all been there. Your Desktop icons have been lovingly and painstakingly placed into specific locations – work spreadsheets top-left, links to cat videos bottom-right – then BANG, your screen resolution gets changed and they all get mashed together into the corner of the screen. There are a number of free methods available to save your desktop layout (and restore it again if your icons are moved) – below are a couple I have used successfully.
Windows 7
The Desktop Restore (64-bit) utility is simple to install and use, and allows you to store multiple desktop layouts, depending on different monitor configurations. The developers claim it can also be used for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista – but I have only verified it on Windows 7 personally.
Windows XP
On my previous Windows XP system, I used Microsoft’s Layout.dll file, which is included in the Windows NT Resource Kit. This should also install successfully on Windows 2000 and Vista systems – but I have not tested this.
Installing the Layout.dll shell extension
- First, download layout.zip and save it to a folder.
- Extract the files to your Desktop.
- Move the file LAYOUT.DLL to the C:\Windows\system32 folder.
- Right-click LAYOUT.REG and choose Merge. Click Yes when asked for confirmation.
Using the Layout.dll shell extension
After installation, you should now have two new menu options when you right-click on an empty part of your Desktop. To save your layout, simply select the Save Desktop Icon Layout option (see below).
If the save has been successful, you should see the following message:
Then, to restore your saved layout at any time, simply follow the same steps and select the Restore Desktop Icon Layout option.
Uninstalling the Layout.dll shell extension
To uninstall, right-click the file Uninstall.reg (also available in layout.zip) and choose Merge. Then manually delete the file LAYOUT.DLL from your C:\Windows\system32 folder.
By John Marchington July 5, 2013 - 12:21 pm
I downloaded layout.zip earlier from another source and I find the ‘Save Desktop Icon Layout’ and ‘Restore Desktop Icon Layout’ don’t appear when I right-click on an empty part of the desktop but they DO appear on the floating menu when I right-click on ‘My Computer’.
I clicked on the ‘Save … Layout’ then did an experiment by moving a couple of icons on the desktop. I then clicked on the ‘Restore … Layout’ and the desktop got really mucked up. That was NOT your ‘layout.zip’ file.
Your ‘layout.zip’ is the only one I’ve seen that actually has the ‘uninstall.reg’ file enclosed (despite others saying that it is there!) so thanks for that. I will use it to uninstall the current installation and will try your zip file to see if it works.
Any comments from you welcome.
By Steve July 15, 2013 - 9:56 am
@John: I can’t offer any comments as you tried a different layout.zip to mine. Did you try my zip afterwards?
By Dave October 8, 2013 - 3:38 pm
Can this be made to work for Win7 too?
By Steve October 9, 2013 - 10:00 am
@Dave: See my update to the post above for an alternative solution for Windows 7.
By J Pat November 11, 2013 - 9:19 pm
In step #4, you have “choose merge” and click yes. I do not find “merge” on the site. Where do I find this command?
Thanks…
By Peter December 26, 2013 - 2:07 pm
I can confirm this works perfectly on winXP SP3.
A right-click on the desktop does it fine.
Great work Steve!
By Steve January 9, 2014 - 12:11 pm
@J Pat: Right-click on the LAYOUT.REG file (after extracting it). Merge will be one of the options.
@Peter: Glad it worked for you!
By Jack January 29, 2014 - 2:37 am
FYI On my 32 bit Windows 7 box, Layout.dll works great. BUT if you switch to an Aero Theme, nothing happens when you click on either “Save Desktop Icon Layout” or restore. You can flip flop between Aero and basic when you need to save/restore, the icon positions are still saved.
By Steve January 29, 2014 - 9:33 am
@Jack. Good to know. Thanks for the info!
By Tom April 9, 2014 - 8:52 pm
Does not work:
Copied to C:\Windows\system32 folder
Added to registry
Right-click on desktop and there are no new options????
By Steve April 10, 2014 - 8:04 am
@Tom: Hard to know what the problem is. What version of Windows are you using? You selected ‘Merge’ after right-clicking on LAYOUT.REG? You right-clicked on an empty part of the desktop? (not on a file)
By Jordan May 10, 2014 - 6:12 pm
Where is the layout info saved? in the DLL file? I use multiple PC’s and want to be able to save the layout from one PC and then download the ZIP to another PC and install it and then restore the layout from that other PC on this new PC. I assume if it’s saved in the DLL I can just back up the DLL from the PC I already saved the layout for and use that DLL instead of the DLL included in the ZIP. Any thoughts?
By John Matenkosky December 27, 2014 - 5:41 pm
Steve, ol’ buddy, is there a way to have the context menu save/restore commands appear only when the My Computer (XP SP3) icon is right-clicked? I’d rather not clutter up ALL of the context menu appearances…
Thanks!
By Steve January 6, 2015 - 8:47 am
@John: Not that I’ve seen – though I’m not sure what you mean by ALL of your context menus being cluttered – I only see it when I right-click on the desktop, nothing else. However, in the “Custom Save/Restore” menu, you can tick a box called “Display Only Custom Menu on Desktop” – which will reduce the number of options in your context menu down to one.
By FengWen 馮文 May 30, 2015 - 2:15 am
Thanks efforts and useful discussions. Off-topic: Any possibility in Win7 how to layout the icons inside a folder and keeping them in position?