One advanced feature of the GNOME Session Manager is the ability to recover a "clean session" if anything goes wrong for you. To do this you must hold down the CTRL and SHIFT keys together when you log in to GNOME.
This will bring up a dialog box which gives you two different options for restoring your GNOME Session.
The first option is to Start with default programs. This option will remove all of the session configuration setting in respect to applications. This will only erase the GNOME session data for applications you had running when you logged out last, it will not change any information you may have set in the Session Manager Capplet in the GNOME Control Center.
The second option is to Reset all user settings. This will reset all GNOME application, and core configuration data. This option will destroy any configurations you have made to the Panel, the GNOME File Manager, the Session Manager Capplet, and any GNOME application. This option will not remove files on your desktop.
IMPORTANT: These options are for advanced users and should only be used in case there is a problem with your GNOME Session. You can lose data for many applications if you utilize the functionality provided by these options.
Figure 10-1. Login Screen for Resetting GNOME Session