Lost Profile?

Thanks for this forum -
New Lenovo SL510 from CDW. Arrived intact, no damages, booted fine.

Medium amount of Lenovo "software" installed. I usually disable some of it in the registry and/or uninstall some.

Completed 'new user' setup, password, used the 'classic windows' look (this is XP!) and installed some additional applications (basic stuff; Office 2003; quicken; Firefox and TBird). Gave the laptop to wife (okay, okay!) and "all" she recalls doing was filling in the popup Lenovo 'security' interface with her Windows password. Dang! Seems like a new profile is created? But all the old stuff is GONE... none of the desktop icons remain as I set them, all the 'settings' are back to Lenovo default (the background, start appearance, etc) and even the installs seem to be back to 'setting them up again'.

Additionally, the Laptop does not seem to want to shut down? Just hangs with regular/steady "hard drive" light blinking on and off in perfect timing.

Any thoughts on what happened? How to prevent it again?
Thanks again.

Doc

 

Lesson of the day - never leave your wife, your girlfriend with your laptop unattended