Problem with my mac

I just got a new mac laptop couple days back , my first time using a mac machine. It came with OSX Tiger.

I have been playing around with it for few days but dunno what keeps resetting my settings in the OS, i.e my account settings in iChat, iMail ( including my emails!!) , my songs in iTunes and apps I install.. I keep losing them!!

how can I prevent this ?

How are you quitting programs? You need to quit properly, not through the dock, or else your prefs won't be saved.

its not just one app...I lose my settings in all of them!!!

Welcome to Mac-Forums, sangam.

Since this problem is across the board, just like Alexis above I am wondering how you actually quit your applications. Do you do a Command (or Apple key) + Q before leaving your applications?

Hello MacHeadCase

Yes I do use command+q key to quit applications.