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Do you see a new wallpaper, rearranged icons , or even a different layout? Here are a few solutions you can use to stop Windows from changing your desktop:. This should help you properly troubleshoot the issue by quickly diagnosing the problem and then applying the necessary fixes to resolve it. The Windows desktop is made up of multiple elements, including the background wallpaper , the icons, the taskbar, and the overall layout. Knowing what part of your desktop changed is the first step in figuring out where the problem lies.

Do you see Live Tiles — square or rectangular tiles, instead of regular icons on your Windows 10 desktop? If yes, the problem is related to a feature called Tablet Mode. Disabling this feature should solve your problem. With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced the Tablet mode — a feature designed to make your desktop more touch-friendly. The idea was that using fingers to touch tiles is more straightforward and intuitive than touching small icons in cramped spaces.

Other than this, you can also accidentally enable it by pressing the Tablet mode shortcut in the Windows action center. Instead, it increases the spacing between the icons to make selecting a finger easier. If you think your Windows desktop changed because the Tablet mode got enabled, you can easily solve the issue by disabling the feature. To do this, follow the steps given below:. Major Windows updates can sometimes change the desktop background wallpaper, icon arrangement, and overall appearance.

If you find that an update was installed recently and that the desktop changed right after that update, then you can shortlist it as a likely cause. If a Windows update changes your desktop, you can uninstall the update to bring back your old desktop.

Note: This might not work all the time, especially if it was a major upgrade that radically changed your desktop layout, icons, wallpaper, etc. For example, when upgrading Windows 10 to Windows Note that after you uninstall an update, Windows will try to reinstall it.

Microsoft used to provide a tool KB that allowed users to hide specific updates and prevent them from installing if they were causing a problem.

However, this Microsoft Community post shares an alternative source for downloading that tool, including a quick tutorial on using it. Note: The guide covers a tutorial for using the tool on Windows However, the same steps will work on Windows 11 as well.

If yes, then you might have the desktop Background set to a Slideshow. This feature, if enabled, will automatically change the desktop wallpaper to a different pre-selected one at regular intervals. In both cases, if the Slideshow option is selected, that explains why your desktop wallpaper is automatically changing. Other than that, the desktop wallpaper can also automatically change if you have a slideshow wallpaper app installed like Bing Wallpaper.

If you believe the problem is because of a wallpaper app you recently installed, then you need to go into its settings and disable Slideshow or any similar option.

Does the desktop on one of your Windows systems change to look like the desktop of your other systems? If you sign in to more than one PC using the same Microsoft account, the sync feature will allow you to synchronize various settings between all the PCs.

These features include the theme, saved passwords, your language preferences, and ease of access settings. In this case, your theme settings are likely getting synchronized between your different Windows systems.

A Windows theme controls multiple UI elements, including the background wallpaper, color scheme, system sounds, and the mouse cursor. If your desktop is changing because the theme settings are getting synched between your various Windows systems, you can easily solve it by disabling the feature. With the sync settings disabled on your Windows machine, you can now customize your desktop to the way you like, and it should not change back to what you have on your other systems.

Do your Windows desktop icons look different or keep changing? Windows will automatically rebuild all the icon cache, and your desktop icons should go back to looking like normal. However, the File Explorer changed with Windows 11, so enabling the Show hidden files option has changed. Do you see the blue Windows wallpaper, the default icons on the taskbar, and just the This PC and Recycle Bin icons on the desktop? This can happen if your original Windows User Profile with your personalized settings gets corrupted.

You can follow this guide to fix your corrupted user profile if this happens. Both Windows 10 and 11 come with the Windows Defender anti-malware software, which detects and removes common threats.

After applying these fixes, you should be free of any further unexpected changes made by Windows. However, knowing when some of these changes occur and why, may cause you to allow these changes for convenient features like syncing across computers. Either way, we appreciate that you took the time to learn more about Windows features and took this journey with me.

Marlo has always been obsessed with computers his whole life. After working for 25 years in the computer and electronics field, he now enjoys writing about computers to help others. Most of his time is spent in front of his computer or other technology to continue to learn more. Table of Contents. Toggle Menu Close. Search for: Search.