Startup screen changed

[JanetBiggar]

Hi Folks,
If I had more time I believe I could work this out, however I'm preparing to depart South Africa and my high school students with whom I have placed my old donated laptops with Linux Lite (which has been WONDERFUL) hence I'm in a bit of time crunch at the moment.

One of my guys did change the settings (not sure if it was desktop settings or panel) and when he booted up the laptop the next time it showed what to me looks almost like a default screen rather than the original screen I had it set on.  Here is a link that will show:
1) the first screen he is presented with, then
2) what I think is a default screen
3) What the screen actually looked like originally before he did some changes.

https://imgur.com/a/az0sSlr

He's not sure what he's done and all the study material and files are all fine and usable. 

Are there some instructions/steps I can provide him to revert to the third photo?

[stevef]

The first image is the GRUB menu which you might want to see on a dual boot machine or if it is necessary to select from different kernel options.
This menu is usually hidden but can be accessed by pressing a certain key at the right time during boot.

If it appears on every boot, it is possible the grub configuration file has been altered and you'd need to reverse whatever has been done there.  That's quite a specific process to follow and not something that should happen while changing desktop wallpapers.  I guess a stuck shift key might also do it.

The other images show different desktop variations.  I can't remember if image 2 is a default.  I assume that when the machine is set up there are some desktop tweaks to get the look and feel shown in image 3 so repeating those desktop tweaks should restore that.

[JanetBiggar]

Thanks for your thoughts Steve.

Since the student can access the study material on the laptop I think I will have him sit tight until I get home and can play around on some old laptop/notebooks to investigate and maybe discover an easy safe fix…

I would imagine it was something he did in desktop settings or panel and not grub so I’ll try there first. Last resort is he can function with it as is until I return to South Africa whereby I will go into system restore or reload LL.  I’m hesitant to have him do a system restore without me there to handle anything that might crop up! I wouldn’t expect anything as I’ve restored before, however “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”!