John,

Exactly that. The control that holds the icons is part of the desktop
window.

What control?

Its just a listview set to icon mode.

What's a listview?

When you open a program all the seperate thingamagotchies within its borders
are called "controls". Like the control where you type your newsgroup
reply in is called an "Edit" control. The desktop uses a control named
SysListView32 to display the icons you see at the left. The "taskbar" at
the bottom is another control, just like the "start button" on it is yet
another one.

For example, here is a program without any controls on it:
http://zetcode.com/img/gui/winapi/window.png

This is one with a single "button" control on it :
http://zetcode.com/img/gui/winapi/modelessdialog.png

This is one with an "edit" and "button" control on it:
http://zetcode.com/img/gui/winapi/editcontrol.png

And just like that button on the second image can be placed anywhere you
like (including outside of the borders of what its currently on!) the
SysListView32 (or "listview" for short) can be moved anywhere too.

Though in my case I'm doing something that normally isn't done: I'm poking
into another program and moving one of its (not mine/my current program)
controls around ...

.... which the "desktop" program didn't want to cooperate with. :-\

Regards,
Rudy Wieser