I kept them on one place for a while by manual selecting "save desktop as default".
I haven't made use of the "desktop" feature myself. So I can't comment much on it. I also don't use Anchordocking, in case you do.
I am not sure what you mean by "icons"
Am I right, that a copy of fpc.cfg would help the user-defined-icons to migrate into a new installation or VM?
fpc.cfg should have nothing to do with "desktop".
Also not with any icons.
FPC accepts command line options (double check the upper/lower casing against the docs / in case I mixed them up)
-Fu folders in which to look for pre-compile ppu units
-FU folders in which to look for pas sources
- A few others like include files... / And some -dDEFINES
This does in no way affect the visuals of the IDE.
It is used only
- by FPC to find files during compilation
- (IIRC) by the IDE / codetools, to find sources for code completion/navigation
desktop config will be in one of the xml files in the PCP. (Or maybe / not sure / part may be in the project session ?)
Keep a backup, make changes in the IDE, do a diff (e.g. WinMerge to diff folders)
Note:
"Project sessions" (list of open files, etc) => there is an option to save them
- as part of the project / in the lpi file
- in an lps file, in the project folder (usually the best option)
- in an lps file, in the PCP
In case of the last option you get conflicts if you have 2 projects with the same name, but in diff folders (which is totally allowed and fine)