Lost Desktop Settings

I recently purchased a Macbook, so I am still getting used to all of the settings and how to work it.

The other night, I was experimenting with differents settings and installing some programs. In the process, I seem to have lost all my desktop settings (widgets, dock, dashboard & expose, internet bookmarks, iCal appointments, address book entries, desktop icons etc.) All of the programs and files that I installed are still on the computer, but they are not on my desktop. I can only access them when I go into Finder/Macintosh HD/Users. At this point, there are 3 folders. One of them has a house icon, the other says "shared" and the last one is the one that has my files from my desktop.

I must have messed something up and I have no clue how to fix it. Any ideas?

Thanks a lot

D-Boom

Just curious, in your "experimenting", did you change the name of any folder (your user's Home folder)?

I don't know if I changed the name of the folder itself, but I was trying to change my user name. When I had the computer set up, the guys at the store typed my name with lowercase letters, and I was trying to change it to capitalize the first letters to make it look better.

I figured as much

Read this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106824

and this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854

Wow! It worked! Thanks a lot for the help. I thought I was screwed. I guess I'll know better next time when I feel like messing with settings.

Thanks again

-Boom

Don't be afraid of messing with settings in Mac OS X.

Just don't rename your Home folder. ;p
Or delete/rename folders called Library or System.

Other than these little rules, go wild. XD