View Single Post
  #2  
Old April 10th 18, 12:42 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
Lee
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 196
Default Where are the desktop icon settings stored in 98se?

On Monday, April 9, 2018 at 1:18:50 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Windows 98se

I have a lot of icons on my desktop. Every once and awhile they get all
jumbled up, and it takes me nearly an hour to straighten them up. I have
a specific order I have them so I can find them quickly. I have never
figured how they get messed up and probably never will....

What file and where is the setting for the icons? What I want to do is
just backup that file so I can replace it when the desktop gets messed
up. There is supposedly some setting to lock the desktop, but I have
never found it, and if it does exist, I'd still like to backup whatever
file has the icon settings, just in case!


That data is stored in the registry as encoded information, you can try to save System.dat and user.dat which are the registry files and attempt to reapply them in DOS mode, but changes done since the last save for the rest of the machine means you might have some programs installed anymore.

A better solution was recently discussed just a few post back. If you can't see it here is the link that provides a fix issued for NT4 but works well for 98 too.
http://stevehealy.org/techblog/?p=162