Windows::Recovery

Some great offline recovery freeware:

NTFS4DOS - Access an NTFS volume from DOS prompt - read/write

Offline Recovery NT/2K/XP/2K3 Offline Password recovery and rudimentary registry editor

Viewing and Manipulating the Registry: "Viewing and Manipulating the Registry"

Windows::XP::Registry

Default user desktop appearance
This is located in the registry under:
HKEY USERS\ . DEFAULT\Control Panel\
Desktop - has the desktop background settings
Colors - contains color settings
Etc.