Do you sometimes accidentally move around desktop icons? Or maybe they are moved automatically when your computer changes screen resolutions? The Windows operating system itself does not offer any options to save the position of desktop icons or lock them in place so that can’t be moved manually or automatically.

If you are experiencing such an issue you could try a program like Desklock which locks the desktop icons in place so that they can’t be moved around anymore.

The program is portable, and all you need to do is download it from the developer website and start it afterwards on the system you want to lock the desktop icons. It saves a configuration file into the same directory it is started in, and works more or less automatic from that moment on.

You can access the program’s settings from the system tray. If you do, you see the following screen

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The program by default locks all icons in place and disables the right mouse button as well. You can still drag and drop icons around, but they are moved automatically to their original position when you release the mouse button.

You may want to uncheck the disable right mouse button option, especially when you sometimes right-click on the desktop, for instance to access the operating system’s personalization or screen resolution menu.

If you want, you can also change the startup state of the program from enabled to disabled, or add  a hotkey to toggle the program’s functionality. The default hotkey is set to Ctrl-Alt-D which you can modify in the settings.

Please note that programs are only locked in their place, but not protected from being deleted. You can still select a program and hit the delete key on the keyboard to remove it from the desktop.