Recent versions of macOS allow the user to customize the order and placement of icons on the Desktop. Most users will need nothing more.
I prefer additional customization options, so I wrote the following shortcut. For this shortcut to work, the user must:
- Set the location of their Desktop at the top of the shortcut.
- Set the Sort By submenu of the Desktop context menu to None.
The customization options can be changed in the Filter Files actions (sort order) and the Run AppleScript action (icon placement).
Desktop Arrange.shortcut (23.3 KB)
A potential criticism of this shortcut is that it has to be run manually. A partial solution is to run the shortcut as an automation whenever an item is added to the Desktop.
There are three issues that make this solution less than ideal. First, there’s a delay of several seconds from the time an item is added to the desktop to the time the shortcut is run. Second, folders that contain no files do not trigger the automation. Third, it requires macOS Tahoe.