Bugs the crap out of me, too.

Having it happen *spontaneously* must be due to some third party program making it happen. Or maybe it's a remote desktop connection taking over his screen.

I've seen it happen each time you attach/detach a second monitor (such as when you dock/undock your laptop).

But if you just want to save and restore their layout, there's a little DLL utility from the resource kit that saves and restores your desktop icon layout. Just rightclick on "My Computer" or "Recycle Bin" or any of those kinds of icons and say SAVE DESKTOP ICON LAYOUT or some such. Very useful. Works on Win2k, XP, and Vista. Not sure about Srv2003. Also: I think it only works on 32-bit platforms. But anyway, if you want it, search for it or I can supply.