We were using MX 18.1 and I down graded her back to 16 but similar problem.
I read some items on the forum about saving the current icon setting file located in /home/USERNAME/.config/xfce4/desktop into a subdirectory of that directory (make one up such as "myicons").
Then create a shell script that deletes the files in /home/USERNAME/.config/xfce4/desktop and copies the file from the made up directory into the /home/USERNAME/.config/xfce4/desktop.
It works, but every time my wife moves an icon or adds an icon the system creates a new icon file (in the above directory) such as icons.screen0-1664x993.rc. And there could be a lot of them in the directory and you have to find the latest one by date, then copy that into the made up directory ("myicons") and edit the shell scrip to update the name of the icon file.
Gets old after a while.
I did some more research today and found this link: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=12447 which gives two files which solves the problem.
The first shell script (he has a newer version in his second post and you should use that one) needs to be copied to an editor such as FeatherPad then save it to a directory (I used /home/USERNAME/) with a file name you need to remember (NAMEOFFILE).
You will need to make it executable by opening up the xfce terminal and using the ls and cd command, move to the directory wherein the file is located.
Then issue this command: chmod +x NAMEOFFILE
You may need to issue the su command and enter the admin password and try again.
This file requires inotify-tools and that is normally not part of the MX distribution so while in the terminal you need to issue the su command and input the admin password and then type: "apt-get install inotify-tools".
inotify-tools will then install
leave the terminal open
Now you need to open up "Settings" in the MX menu then "Session and Startup" then click on the tab "Application Autostart"
Then click on the "+Add" button and a dialog box will appear with 3 fields to fill in.
In "Name" put in something you want to remember such as 'Icon-saver" and under "Description" put something to remember what this does such as "Resets icons"
Then under "Command" you need to put "bash -c NAMEOFFILE" make sure you put the entire path such as "/home/USERNAME/NAMEOFFILE"
Close by clicking on the OK button.
Go back to the xfce terminal and type in the following command after making sure you are in the correct directory where the file (NAMEOFFILE) is located (use ls command and see if the file is listed): "./NAMEOFFILE"
if nothing happens, then use the su command then type in the admin password and try again.
you should get a message that says "Watches established".
if not, close other programs and try again.
Do not close the terminal, but move one of the desktop icons to a new place on the desktop screen and you should see a notification "Icon position saved" and then a long file name.
If this happens, you are now set to work on the next file.
The second shell script (he has a newer version in his second post and you should use that one) also needs to be copied to an editor such as FeatherPad then save it to the desktop (/home/USERNAME/Desktop) with a file name you need to remember (NAMEOFFILE).
The shell script has a block of text with the following "#ans=$(zenity --title "Save With Exit" --height 300 --width 200 --list --text " etc.
Just delete this block of text as MX uses yad so you should only have the line (or block): ans=$(yad --window-icon=system-devices-panel-information --on-top --sticky --f" etc.
save (if you don't do this, nothing is hurt as the default use for the file is to use yad and the shell script has placed the zenity block in a remark anyway)
You will need to make it executable by opening up the xfce terminal and using the ls and cd command, move to the Desktop directory wherein the file is located.
Then issue this command: chmod +x NAMEOFFILE
You may need to issue the su command and enter the admin password and try again.
Close the terminal.
You should see the icon on your desktop. You will use this icon to logout, shutdown, restart or hibernate your MX session. Do not use the normal method from now on, you should use this icon.
Test it by clicking on the icon and a dialog box should come up and allow you to choose logout, shutdown, restart, etc.
For now, just click cancel.
If you want to put this on the MX main menu then right click on the Main MX Menu icon with the right mouse button, then click on "Properties" then click on the "Commands" tab, then click on the browse button for "Log Out" and find the "NAMEOFFILE" for the second file you just created, then click on it and it should show in the field for "Log Out". Now click on the"Close" button. If you ever decide to go back to the old method, just put back "xfce4-session-logout" in that field.
Well done. What these files do is: the first file saves the latest icon file after an icon has been moved or added to the desktop, and upon exiting your MX session the second file prevents the xcfe4 system from changing the icons to the default all left positions and the first file automatically directs xcfe4 to use the saved icon file so that your icon positions remain as they were.
AND IT WORKS!
For power users, I have deliberately put in a lot of information for newbies like myself.
