Ed Vance -> ALL said..

 EV> Often I will do something that I wish I hadn't done while
 EV> using it and wonder if XP IS Saving The Bad Settings over the
 EV> top of a known Good Settings file that will be used when I
 EV> turn on the computer again.

My understanding is that the OS is creating the necessary files that
contain the info for the positions of the icons on the desktop, and
possibly doing other housekeeping such as required for Restore.

I rarely do a full shutdown on my computers anymore.  Instead, I use
Hibernate.  The Hibernate process is much faster in both directions:
powering down and up.   Maybe give that a try.

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