How to change desktop icon size?
I had the same problem because I had changed the icon size in a window. So I fixed it back from top-right of an open file browser window!
Changing icon size in any file browser window will affect all your windows including Desktop!
Does this apply to all files put on the desktop or just the one icon you're showing? If the latter, that probably means you did it accidentally. Right click the icon, then select "Restore Icon's Original Size...".
The first one, I don't know (yet) how that would happen.
Also, maybe you could try gconf-editor. In it, go to apps>nautilus>icon_view. There's a setting for icon size there. Maybe that's what you need.
If you are using dconf-editor, the path to "icon_view" setting is org>gnome>nautilus>icon_view
gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.icon-view default-zoom-level 'small'
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Right click the icon you want to resize. Select "Resize icon..."
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Hold-click and drag the handles that appear over the icon to resize it.
You can revert to the icon's default size by selecting "Restore Icon's Original Size" in the icon's right-click context menu.
Just open Nautilus. Go to Edit → Preferences and change the percentage of the Icon View Defaults (in German, Symbolansicht) (33%, 50%, 66%, 100%, 200%).
Why this setting affects the size of the icons on your desktop will be a mystery forever! But that is the easiest way to resize all icons on the desktop at once without using any tool like gconf-editor.