Uninvited desktop icon rearrangement

[who where]

Over the years I have some issues with these critters. On advice
received in this or the other W98 group, I installed a small app
(whose name I forget) that saved the layout and restores it from a
Rt-Clk seelction on MyComputer. This works a treat in recovering from
those occasions when things go awry but ...

Somehow lately the desktop seems to get rearranged like (western)
writing on a page - filled from the top left in rows. As an addicted
desktop-icon-stuffer (there's room for about four more) who knows
where every one normally is, this is getting annoying and there is
obviousl;y a cause which i would like to address by means other than
invoking the "Restore Desktop Icon Layout" function.

The situations where this unwanted rearrangement is occurring are:

(a) on first bootup into Windoze.
(b) sometimes, on closing an app window (e.g. a browser) when that
was only user-app running.

Any suggestions on how to prevent this unwanted rearrangement?