Icons do not align to grid despite the setting

[Sebastian42]

In THIS WinXP system, when I move desktop icons slightly, it's like they are on elastic bands, and they snap back into place. In another similar WinXP system of mine on a different computer, the icons stay put in any higgeldy-piggeldy position I drag them. The settings on the desktop menu for 'Arrange icons by...' are identical for the two WinXP systems. How might I fix the faulty (the latter) one ?

[lolafuertes]

If you right clich on an empty part or your screen, there is a context menú with a View submenú, that holds an option to 'align to the grid'.

Please, verify if it is checked or not.

Hope this helps

[TurcoLoco]

Empty part of the screen, right-click > VIEW:
"Auto arrange icons" option, when checked, will stack them to the left hand side of the screen and will NOT give you any freedom to move them anywhere you want. To be able to move the icons, you need to UNcheck this option. With this option checked, if you move an icon to another place on the desktop, it will automatically move it back to the left side where it was stacked before which will seem like the "snap" action you mentioned.

"Align icons to grid" option, when checked, will position the icons according to the screen grid, to have 100% freedom in where you want to move the icons to, you have to UNcheck this option as well.