system locks up

[stormbay]

I'm using suse 11 and the otrhe day when I minimised a window instead of going to the system tray, it disappeared as did every other application i tried to minimise. I was able t get access to them by using ctrl f9, but when there is more than one window and I click on one the whole system locks up.Can someone help to get my system back to the way it was as this way can't just swap windows but have to use ctrl f9, please not to technical terms so an old bloke can understand, thanks.

[D-cat]

Could be a corrupted config file for your windows manager. Try logging out and logging back in with a different manager, i.e. if you're using KDE4, try logging in under Gnome.

[stormbay]

Could be a corrupted config file for your windows manager. Try logging out and logging back in with a different manager, i.e. if you're using KDE4, try logging in under Gnome.

Thanks, however I don't have clue as to what my system uses or how to change it, it just starts up I don't log in at all., I think it's KDE but don't know how to find out. Being over 60, I'm a bit disadvantaged regarding computer talk, even though Ive been using and mucking round with them since the early 1980's. But I'm mathematically and tech talk challenged, but when I understand the methodology learn really quick.

[whych]

Easiest way then is to logout(end session) and then it will bring up a login screen. Login as root, open a file manager and go to /home/username (where username is your login name you chose on installation).
Tell the file manager to show hidden files and look for a file called .kde or .gnome.
Delete this file, logout and login as yourself.
This deletes your gnome or kde profile and creates a new one when you login.