restore Ubuntu's default settings without having to reinstall

Question

I want to restore Ubuntu 12.04 to it's stock configuration, but I don't want to reinstall or reformat my home partition. I don't have a way to backup my files, which is why I don't want to have to reinstall and reformat my hdd.

Is there a way to do this??

Solution 1

You can restore your monitor resolution by:

sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and reboot.

Solution 2

You can restore gnome-related (not you video card, display, x-server, etc.) settings using:

rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity

Here is a link to ubuntu forums which discusses the same: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1060406

Comments

[mx7]

i think there is no way .

[Dan Mar]

Thanks everybody for your input but I found a way to do it on a forum. It consists of reinstalling Ubuntu but keeping my home partition intact. Then logging in as root, creating a new user, moving all the files I want to keep to the new user's home folder. Afterwards I deleted my original homefolder, then renamed the newuser's homefolder with my user name and chown -R it to my username and group. Then I Deleted the new user. And Voilá, my installation was good as new but with all my stuff intact.