Re-Post: not sure why word-wrap failed above:

A new PC Magazine that I just brought in from the mailbox (March 25, 2003) notes (page 70):

Fix Scrambled Desktop Icons. Windows maintains a cache of the images of your Desktop icons, so it doesn't have to extract them from the corresponding program every time. If this cache is too small, Desktop icons may display improperly...

They suggest that your GEEK should look for the Registry Key

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
MaxCachedIcons DWORD 4096

The 4096 is the "starting value" they suggest you should put there, but they note that some people may need an even higher value.

After your expert has changed the registry values, you may have to use the "force rebuild" noted above by resetting icons, or they suggest just right-click on the desktop, choose Properties, and click the Appearance tab, select Icon from the pull-down and change the value to one pixel larger, click Apply, then set it back and click OK.

I'd add my own note that any time you make changes to the Registry, it's a good idea to reboot, since Registry state may not be fully saved until you go through a shutdown cycle.

It's possible, even if you ran through the "cache rebuild" there wasn't room to store a valid rebuilt cache.

John