Save Desktop Icons Order

very good
key review info
application features
  • Save your dearest icon locations for each screen resolution.
  • (3 more, see all...)

Regardless of the application that messes up the order of the shortcuts on your desktop, you have the possibility to save the icon layout and restore it whenever it is modified. DesktopOK is the program that can help you with this and bring back the original shortcut order.

Some users like their shortcuts on the desktop organized in a certain way, like grouping the icons to related software together, while those for documents or opening playlists flocked in a different part of the screen. However, some apps may require changing the resolution (or worse, change it automatically) and there goes all the shortcut groups.

Games are generally the ones disrupting the perfect shortcuts layout on your desktop by changing the resolution. More often than not, when they revert to the original resolution your icons all the grouping and organizing you’ve made is gone. For those having plenty of elements pinned on the desktop having to put everything back in order is a time consuming chore. But this can be avoided.

DesktopOK is free of charge and requires no installation to start using it. In our case the interface was switched to German by default, but after a quick look on the application window we noticed the German flag in the lower left hand corner and clicking it turned everything to English in a jiffy.

Looks are not great and the set of options is not complicated, but then again, DesktopOK was built for a simple purpose. The buttons in the application window allow you to manage the different desktop layouts you save.

If you’re not keen on a particular icon pattern on your desktop, you can instruct the application to scramble all the elements on the desktop. The good part is that the button is accompanied by a tooltip which warns of the fact that the position of each icon will be random.

Each layout you save can be renamed to something more recognizable than the default resolution values DesktopOK assigns. For all the entries in the list you have the time and date of the save.

Although all the settings are preserved in the application folder, DesktopOK also allows you to save the settings of a specific layout separately, as a standalone file. This allows you to import all the settings later, should something happen to the configuration file in the application folder.

Additional functionality is available in DesktopOK through “Tools” menu which provides the means to keep the icons on the desktop hidden until one of the supported actions triggers their display. Your options to bring the shortcuts back on the desktop include mouse clicking (left, right or middle click). The desktop can also be set to be cleared up if the mouse is inactive for a period of time.

More options in the menu permit you to send any opened window to system tray so that the taskbar becomes less crowded, tile them vertically, horizontally or arrange them in cascade on the desktop.

Automatically saving the current layout is on the list of DesktopOK’s features as well. The app can take a snapshot of the layout with a user-defined frequency (15 minutes, one hour, every 6 hours or once a day). To make things easy on you it can perform auto-save right before Windows turns off or the moment the OS loads up and maintain only a limited number of entries.

Although the application can also be used from a removable device, if you make it start with Windows you cut right into its portability, as the setting is recorded right in Windows Registry.

Besides the fact that the default language is German and we had to look for the language-changing option DesktopOK really made an impression. It is small, the set of options covers more than settings for saving and restoring shortcut arrangement on the desktop and it is easy to use.

It can automatically save the desktop icon layout when you turn off the computer or with a certain frequency. For this you have to keep it running in system tray and the 1MB it requires can’t be an inconvenient.

We couldn’t quite find a purpose for the “Punch the Icons” function which is designed to randomize the order of the elements on the desktop, but it fits perfectly on my April Fools’ Day hoax list.


The Good

DesktopOK comes with basic functionality that does not require mad computer skills to understand. The options it brings are simple and intuitive.

Automatically saving the layout from time to time ensures that all the icon-layout entries are up-to-date. The application can also keep all the desktop elements hidden until you trigger their visibility.

The Bad

Default configuration comes in German, which may come as a major inconvenient to English users not noticing the country flag in the bottom left hand corner of the application window.

We could not find a good use to “Punch the Icons” button which randomizes the order of the desktop icons.

The Truth

Despite the German interface which is activated by default in the application, DesktopOK makes for a great desktop restoring tool. The additional options it packs expand its functionality allowing you to organize opened windows and even send them to system tray.

It is free of charge, can be used from a USB drive and works like a charm once you manage to change the default language to English.


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This article is also available in SpanishGuarda el orden de los iconos del escritorio

user interface 4
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 4


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
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