how to stop lion re-arranging my desktop upon startup

You can complain about it all you want, but all these headaches could have been solved with a simple half-hour (or less) of research before upgrading, and when upgrading any system that you depend on for your livlihood, that is a requirement. It doesn't matter whether you are using Macs, Windows or Linux... new systems always break some old software. You may not want this to be the case, and may not want to have to think about it, but no matter what kind of computer you use, it is and you will. Whether you stick with Macs or switch to Windows, I don't really care, but I hope you take this lesson to heart in the future. If you don't... well, as they say, "Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it."

Incidentally, when i discovered i couldn't use the some of the programs i spoke to the local store who look after my business account. The guy, who was very helpful, said HE didn't know about the PowerPC issues.

If that store was an Apple Store, that guy should be fired. I don't care how nice he is or how helpful he is on other subjects... it's his job to know stuff like this.

Love having discussions with people who are very selective about which part they respond to - i.e. ignoring the bits they have no response to! You're right, should have done more research. I watched the half hour presentation by Jobs (notice he didn't mention the PowerPC issues!!). Guess Apple had lulled me into a false sense of security having had NO issues with previous upgrades.

Yes it was an Apple store. Guess the AppleCare lady should be fired too!! Infact, maybe we should fire the in-store Genius who advised me that Lion is poor in it's current form and maybe going back to Snow Leopard would be best. Actually, here's a thought, maybe it would have been easier for Apple to just warn people fairly and not release a product with more than acceptable numbers of problems / bugs.

Yes, now i've read an awful lot of 'discussions' about people who consider Lion to be a big leap - backwards!! When i upgraded, there weren't many issues being talked about. ****, forgot the crystal ball.

Fortunately, i don't depend on Apple OS for my livelihood. I simply use them to assist with emails and invoicing, otherwise i really would be in a pickle!!

On a different note, when i purchased phones for the business and desperately wanted the iphone i was lucky enough for the iphone to have been out long enough for the issues with it to become commonly known. Went with Blackberry's which as a tool for emails is fantastic.

It was nice talking with you, still don't know how to fix the tendency for Lion to re-arrange my desktop and how to stop imported items hiding in the top left hand side of the desktop. Maybe Apple will see fit to sorting it.

Regards

Baltwo:

Well, I thot I had it fixed. But upon starting up from sleep this morning...folders on my hard disk are scattered again. BTW, I installed 10.7.1 last night, hoping that would fix the problem. Looks like not.

I'm keeping this thread bookmarked...just in case someone comes up with a rix for this.

Thanks for your help so far.

Having the same issue, rearranging desktop and HD icons at random intervals, after a restart.

Tried deleting those files someone mentioned, worked for a week then it happened again.

Any hope of having this fixed soon?

I mean, it doesn't sound like a complex bug to solve in a system patch/update...

This serious productivity bug arose with one of the updates of Mac OS X 10.6.x. Things have gone worse with Mac OS X 10.7.

Apple, this is what happens when bugs are not fixed on due time, even when affecting only some users.

The first suggestion is interesting but not practical. First, I cannot imagine saving tons of .DS_Store files just in case (because this bug affects far more than just the desktop... you just wait). Second, because my desktop and folder contents change regularly, i"m not sure an older DS_Store file will restore things in their place if the number and arrangement of said things has changed in the meantime, which is likely.

The second suggestion, however, could yield some results... assuming that Apple cares about this bug, of which I am not certain at all. But it's worth a try. Thanks for that one.

This thread deals with Desktop's arrangememt and backing up one file is very practical. I never worry about other folders, since all of them are set to list view. If there are newer items in the folder, then when restoring the .DS_Store file, it'll update the new items's locations. Never been an issue when I had to restore. As for filing a BR, that's Apple's official method for bringing issues to their attention and numbers count.

The exact same bug affects more than just the desktop, so it's pertinent to include this in the current topic. Not everyone keeps all their folders organized in non-icon view, and they will be affected by the same bug in folders other than the desktop.

This said, I didn't know that a .DS_Store file would simply be update itself with new or missing items. Thanks for that one.

I also agree that numbers count and hope that everyone will also register a s a dev and file a bug report.

Cheaper (free):

Desktop Icon Manager

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/19789/desktop-icon-manager

http://www.parker9.com/desktopIconManager2.0.html#d

But Apple should fix this annoying bug asap, on both Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7.

It may be free but it don't run under Lion. Still not compiled for Lion which is where the issues are. I'm sticking with that 99¢ app. To me that's basically free. 🙂

My mistake. The app runs under lion. I only saw the applescript.

Welcome to the club (this bug started with some Snow Leopard update many months ago):

Rearranging Icons on the Desktop

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2131820?tstart=0

It's not doing that here. How is it re-arranging things? With no other Finder windows open, look at View -> Sort By... is anything selected in that sub-menu?

Dunno if this will work, but try deleting the .DS_Store file in your desktop folder. You can most easily do this in the Terminal by pasting in the following command:

rm ~/Desktop/.DS_Store

Try this, then:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist