Mac OS X desktop icons may spontaneously rearrange or become unsorted (scrambled) after restarting or force quitting and restarting the Finder. In these cases, items lose their alphabetical or other sorting, and may scatter to various parts of the desktop.
Fix
You may be able to resolve this issue by deleting the .DS_Store file on your Desktop. This is a hidden file, but it can be deleted with the utility DS_Store_Cleaner. Alternatively, you can use these instructions to delete the file.
Susie says
Thanks with regard to supplying this type of well put together knowledge.
ApeX says
Also:
Rearranging Icons on the Desktop
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2131820?start=0&tstart=0
ApeX says
No way. It does NOT work at all. See (also for Mac OS X 10.6.7):
Desktop items get unsorted after cold boot on Snow Leopard 10.6.2
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2335032?start=0&tstart=0