The Shifting Grid
Windows 11 features a desktop management system designed to keep your icons neatly aligned to an invisible grid. However, if you frequently connect and disconnect external monitors, change your display scaling settings (DPI), or play full-screen video games at non-native resolutions, Windows will often panic during the resolution switch. The operating system attempts to automatically resize and reposition all of your carefully arranged desktop icons to fit the temporary screen dimensions. When you revert to your normal resolution, the icons rarely go back to their original positions, leaving your desktop looking like a chaotic, disorganized mess.
Locking the Desktop Grid
To stop Windows 11 from aggressively managing your icon placement and to ensure your desktop shortcuts remain exactly where you put them regardless of display changes, you must disable the auto-arrange and grid alignment features.
Navigate to your Windows 11 desktop and find an empty space where there are no icons. Right-click on the empty desktop background to open the context menu. Hover your mouse over the View option at the very top of the list. A secondary menu will expand to the side. Look closely at the bottom half of this menu. You will see two options: Auto arrange icons and Align icons to grid. If either of these options has a small checkmark next to it, click the option to uncheck it. You must ensure both options are completely unchecked. From now on, Windows will treat your icons as static objects, allowing you to place them anywhere without the operating system ever attempting to automatically resize or reposition them during a resolution change.