Thanks Karsten
Thats how we corrected our problems - by re-installing. I will also look out for the XML solution. I tried looking up my own client preferences file, and the settings are indeed there. Ofcourse, I would need an XML editor for it.
I also tested the answers given above by Ryan Smith and Shrikant Jadhav. Those work as well. I am assuming that instead of the XML, I could just set those, and the XML file will simply read from there.
Thanks for all the answers in any case.
regards
Shrikant