Resolution (maybe)
Hi,
I have this issue as described by OP on both personal and work laptops using Win11.
When placing something onto desktop (either dragged from location on local machine to desktop) or downloading something to desktop, it will move all icons down one position, leaving the first position (top left of desktop) open.
It appears that this bug is some how related (certainly for me) to the recycle bin being enabled using the "Desktop Icon Settings" menu accessed through Themes.
It appears if I have these settings:
View attachment 115906
Then it will move my icons down 1 position when doing the above as OP said. If I disable the recycle bin, then it will still cause the issue for me, though others have said this resolves it for them.
However, if I enable both the "Computer" setting and "Recycle Bin" setting, then it seems to resolve the issue (for me at least) and stop this from occurring.
These are the settings I am running now:
View attachment 115907
I haven't tested which of these settings work with each other so there might be some other combinations that don't cause the bug. However, I can say that so far, having these settings has stopped the issue for me.
Tests run:
"recycle bin" option only enabled - causes bug
Disable then enable "recycle bin" option - fixes bug until desktop is refreshed and/or machine restart/reboot then bug returns until disable/enable is done again.
"Recycle bin" enabled + "Computer" enabled - fixes bug (seems fine after desktop refresh and reboot/restart but have only had these settings enabled for an hour so remains to be seen if this is a long term fix)
"Recycle bin" disabled + "Computer" enabled - bug occurs
As a result, it appears the issue (again for me at least) is related to the Recycle Bin being enabled/disabled and how the desktop interacts with that icon when something changes on the desktop.
I can't say for certain as I only have 2 machines (work and personal) to test on and speaking to others, they can have the recycle bin icon enabled or disabled on their win11 machines and do not have this issue. So it seems to be related to that specific users setup of their own machine. However, the settings above worked so may help others.
Thanks