Windows 10 – All desktop icons shifted on the left side after startup

I believe this may be a problem in the registry. In particular, I think this lies under HKCR.

I would like you to check some registry data manually first.

WARNING: Editing the registry can be dangerous. You are warned!

First, fire up Registry Editor (run regedit.exe from the start menu search box).

Then navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe. On the right you should see (Default) of type REG_SZ having the data exefile. Comment below and stop here if this is not on your machine.

Then also navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk. On the right you should see (Default) of type REG_SZ having the data lnkfile. Comment below and stop here if this is not on your machine.

If you passed the above check, then you can follow the following steps to attempt to fix the problem.

WARNING: Editing the registry can be dangerous. You are warned twice!

The following fixes .exe files:

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\DropHandler. On the right you should see (Default) of type REG_SZ, but may not be having the data {86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}.

Now, select "File" -> "Export" on the menu to backup the data.

When you've done exporting the data, you should try editing the data of the item (Default). Double-click on (Default), then paste the following value {86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D} and click "OK" (or press Enter).

The following fixes .lnk (Windows shortcuts) files:

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\DropHandler. On the right you should see (Default) of type REG_SZ, but may not be having the data {00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}.

Now, select "File" -> "Export" on the menu to backup the data.

When you've done exporting the data, you should try editing the data of the item (Default). Double-click on (Default), then paste the following value {00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} and click "OK" (or press Enter).

After that, close Registry Editor and restart explorer.exe. The easy way is to log off then log in.

By default, you can also drop to .bat, .cmd and some more file types. If you find that you can't also, find a working Windows 7 machine and copy the corresponding registry values.

I cannot speak to the specific issue you are having (as I have never seen it do that), but Windows just does not have very good tools for managing or organizing icon positions on the desktop. Windows has neglected this since the very beginning. I personally keep icons in groups with gaps between them just to keep things mentally straight, but there are many actions which will cause Windows to just toss them all in the upper-left without regard to their previous positions.

You can try deleting your desktop.ini file. It's hidden by default but you can access it by showing hidden/system files, or by the command line. It will get recreated. You can also try deleting your iconcache.db file. It's located in your user profile folder under \AppData\Local (also hidden).

Normally I don't make product recommendations (especially commercial software), but in your case you might benefit from a program called Fences from StarDock. The program is free and allows you to group icons together and drag them around as a group. You can keep often-used icons together on one side of the screen and let downloads, etc. pile up however Windows does them on the other. It also preserves icon layout across resolution changes.